HTC is likely to release ‘blockchain smartphone’ Exodus 1 in December

HTC has announced that the previously announced blockchain smartphone is available for pre-order now and is expected to ship in December. The phone can only be purchased with cryptocurrency.

To get your hands on the Exodus 1, a preorder can now be placed, which can only be paid with bitcoin or ethereum. This concerns 0.15 bitcoin or 4.78 ethereum, which translates to approximately 830 euros. For this, orderers will receive a smartphone that uses blockchain technology, creating a separate, closed software environment that is separated from the Android O operating system. The cryptocurrency keys and, for example, personal data are stored in this ‘secure enclave’.

If the phone is stolen or beyond repair, there is functionality called ‘social key recovery’ to quickly and easily recover keys or data. The user can choose three to five friends who can help with that. They then have to download an app and an algorithm splits the key between them. It is in fact still a beta product; HTC will soon release APIs so developers can use the blockchain phone to, for example, sign transactions and secure keys.

The Exodus 1 has a Snapdragon 845-soc and a 6-inch screen with an 18:9 ratio. The phone also has 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage on board. There are two cameras on the back, the primary of which has a resolution of 16 megapixels. and the secondary is a 12-megapixel one. There are also two cameras on the front, but each with a resolution of 8 megapixels. Videos can be recorded in 4k resolution and at 60 frames per second. The battery is a 3500mAh copy .