Sirin Labs, the company behind the $16,000 Solarin Android smartphone, is building a blockchain phone called Finney that will run on Ethereum rather than IOTA's Tangle technology, reversing what the c
Sirin Labs, the company behind the $16,000 Solarin Android smartphone, is building a blockchain phone called Finney that will run on Ethereum rather than IOTA's Tangle technology, reversing what the company promised in its whitepaper.
Nimrod May, chief marketing officer of Sirin Labs, explained the shift in an interview with ETHNews. "We are not working with IOTA. We considered the option and decided to path ways. At launch, we are going to use the Ethereum blockchain. The Finney Phone will work through complete nodes that are hosted on Sirin Labs."
The company has long intended to move beyond its initial plan. "Our plan since the release of our whitepaper, has always been to migrate the SRN token and Sirin Labs ecosystem to a next-generation blockchain," May said.
Sirin Labs plans to expand beyond a single product. The Finney line will include a personal computer alongside the smartphone, and both will run Sirin OS, an open source operating system the company developed. The devices will come with a built-in cryptocurrency wallet, secure exchange access, encrypted communications tools, and a peer-to-peer resource sharing network powered by the company's SRN token. The Finney devices themselves will form an independent blockchain network, aimed at making cryptocurrency and related services accessible for more people.
Foxconn's subsidiary agreed in April to manufacture the Finney devices. The deal splits responsibility, with Foxconn handling original design and manufacturing while Sirin Labs develops the cold storage wallet hardware and the operating system.
The Finney smartphone carries a $1,000 price tag and will debut in November. Sirin Labs plans to open eight stores in regions with strong cryptocurrency adoption to sell the device. The company has received over 25,000 preorders and aims to ship between 100,000 and a few million units by year's end.
To fund Finney development, Sirin Labs raised $158 million through an ICO in December 2017. The company also secured a $72 million seed round in 2016 to develop the original Solarin phone.
Sirin Labs faces competition from other blockchain phone makers. Zippie, which raised $30 million in its ICO in February, was built by engineers with past experience at Nokia and Jolla. BitVault, a product of Irish company Embedded Downloads, has distributed units for evaluation in military applications across Asia. HTC announced the Exodus blockchain phone in May. It will launch by year's end and initially support Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dfinity, and the Lightning Network, with plans to expand to "the entire blockchain ecosystem." The HTC Exodus also carries a $1,000 price tag. HTC intends to establish a native blockchain network across all Exodus devices.
