HTC to release low-cost blockchain smartphone capable of running a full bitcoin node

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC has unveiled a new lost-cost version of its blockchain smartphone at the Magical Crypto Conference in New York on Saturday, CoinDesk reported.

In May 2018, HTC announced that it is working on a new Android phone which will be powered by blockchain technology. Later in October, it opened access to the first phone of the Exodus project, the ‘EXODUS 1,’ which is priced at $699.

HTC Decentralized Chief Officer Phil Chen recently announced plans to release a second-generation blockchain phone in the latter half of 2019. He has now unveiled “EXODUS 1s”, which would be priced somewhere between $250 and $300.

“[The 1s is] going to be a lot cheaper, it will be a lot more accessible,” Chen said, adding that the company is planning to launch EXODUS 1s by the end of Q3.

In addition to conducting standard smartphone functions – music, videos, pictures, apps and dapps, EXODUS 1s will have the ability to run a full node for the bitcoin network, allowing users to store the entire blockchain’s data on their devices.

“The bitcoin blockchain is about 200 [gigabytes], and it’s growing about 60 gigs per year. And those numbers are reasonable to hold on a smartphone. Imagine the iPod with 256 gigs … of course the music fan wants to keep the whole music library but the crypto fan wants to keep the whole bitcoin blockchain,” Chen said.

He went on to explain that this feature would essentially allow users to verify data themselves. While the bitcoin blockchain would be supported at launch, other networks could be added going forward.

“I think running light nodes, like ethereum for example, is definitely doable, [but] it all depends on the spec,” he said.

HTC is also going to launch a software development kit (SDK) for its crypto wallet app, Zion Vault, with plans to open-source the code behind its social key recovery mechanism.