Recently, HTC has announced the release of its first blockchain-enabled phone - the Exodus 1. In early-access version, Exodus is now available for pre-order and can be purchased with cryptocurrency.
EXODUS 1 will be purchasable to customers in the U.S., Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, the U.K., and nearly 30 other countries. The phone will be sold through the
HTC website and the expected shipping date is somewhere in December. The cost is pegged at 0.15 BTC or 4.78 ETH which translates to about $960.
Source: htcexodus.com
"The goal is to start with the blockchain community and get their assistance in making our wallet and the technology even more secure, in essence testing it out and providing feedback and suggestions [and] solutions," HTC's decentralized chief officer, Phil Chen explains, "Recent figures show that there are around 35 million wallets out there at the moment. The HTC EXODUS 1 is about getting the consumer used to owning their own keys and going from there to develop the EXODUS into a device that can be for the broader market."
EXODUS 1 has a wallet that’s kept in a secure area “protected from the Android OS,” which can hold the keys to your cryptocurrency and tokens.
The device also includes a social key recovery mechanism in case your phone is lost, stolen, or you misplace your key information. Users can keep the recovery details with a few trustworthy friends, who can then download a key management app. HTC will use a secret sharing algorithm to send the info to your friends, which you can then piece together if needed.
As part of this release, HTC has also called the developers and cryptographers to suggest the ways to improve the design and security. Interestingly, the company is also working on an API to allow developers to create their own key apps and wallets.