HTC announces cheaper version of blockchain smartphone

HTC will release the Exodus 1s at the end of the third quarter of this year, a cheaper version of its Exodus smartphone. The Exodus 1s can be used as a node in the blockchain network.

The Exodus 1s will cost somewhere between 250 and 300 dollars in the US, converted and with VAT that comes out to 270 to 323 euros. By default, the smartphone is given the option to contain a smaller version of the blockchain. The entire blockchain, with a size of about 200GB, can be put on a memory card by the user.

The smartphone itself can’t mine crypto by default, but Phil Chen, decentralized chief officer at HTC, tells Engadget that partners will make announcements in this area. Incidentally, the HTC Exodus, the company’s first blockchain smartphone, will also have the option to serve as a full node in the blockchain network from the end of the third quarter. The node functionality will have an impact on battery life, the company confirms.

The Exodus 1s will feature HTC’s Zion cryptocurrency wallet. In this, users can store bitcoin, ether, litecoin and the Ethereum-based tokens ERC-20 and ERC-721, among other things. The Zion application serves as a Trusted Execution Environment for key storage. HTC is making the Zion Vault SDK available on GitHub so developers can easily build support into their apps.

Further details of the smartphone are not yet known. For example, it is not clear which processor it will contain and how much memory it has. HTC announced the Exodus in October last year.

The original HTC Exodus