Slashdot Mirror
The World's First Blockchain Smartphone Is In Development (engadget.com)
A company called Sirin Labs is developing an open-source smartphone that runs on a fee-less blockchain. "The Finney -- named in honor of bitcoin pioneer Hal Finney -- will be the only smartphone in the world that's fully secure and safe enough to hold cryptographic coins," reports Engadget. The company is launching a crowdsale event this October (date to be confirmed) to support the phone's development. From the report: According to Sirin, all Finney devices (there's an all-in-one PC coming, too) will form an independent blockchain network powered by IOTA's Tangle technology. The network will operate without centralized backbones or mining centers cluttering up the transaction process, using the SRN token as its default currency (only SRN token holders will be able to purchase the device). And it'll all run on a Sirin operating system specially designed to support blockchain applications such as crypto wallets and secure exchange access. The phone comes with all the bells and whistles you'd expect from a device with a $1,000 price tag, including a 256GB internal memory and 16MP camera, plus a hefty suite of security measures.
nothing else to say
Isn't the only benefit of a blockchain is to replace a single trusted server with distributed authority. How does that help with a local device (aka a smartphone)?
Your ad here. Ask me how!
It will also be first fully secure system ever created.
Is Slashdot done with the lengthy downtime? Or is the management intent on migrating the site to Windows 10 servers running IIS? What is going on here?!?
That is quite some buzzword soup right there...
-------
1. Enjoy your job
2. Make lots of money
3. Work within the law
Choose any two.
Without AI, it's already outdated before it is released....
And what makes a "blockchain" phone more secure than a "non-blockchain" one?
Blockchain is an algorithm; or I suppose it could be viewed as an architectural viewpoint. But until someone says exactly what problem they are using blockchain to solve (and how) there's absolutely no reason to believe a "Blockchain Phone" would be any more secure than an ordinary phone running blockchain apps.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
However on top of block chain it has a "chain" of buzwords. Block chain, AI, secure, encryption, XXX, virtualization, drone. and our marketing is already searching for the coolest other buzzwords we can add.
Anyone know why /. was offline for most of the day today?
Will this phone only support the Finney Coins or will it support other coins too? Seems like launching a mobile device along with their new ICO. Having a secure computing device would of course be helpful and an apprehension to many currently-( besides the coin bubble risks, getting ripped off / hacked also a concern e.g Mt Vox). Maybe team up with Essential they seem to have capital $ and Rubin's name. Meanwhile Japan banks are looking to launch J-Coin digital currency. An established device manufacturer plus banks could help launch devices and block chains folks might be more accepting. Getting a large base of users the challenge.
However on top of block chain it has a "chain" of buzwords. Block chain, AI, secure, encryption, XXX, virtualization, drone. and our marketing is already searching for the coolest other buzzwords we can add.
Holographic display 3D-printed nanotech AI cold fusion powered?
It's the new Beowulf cluster.
sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
As you know, there are 4 types of CPU's: von Neumann architecture, Harvard architecture, Bose-Einstein and blockchain.
Blockchain CPU's are self-cleansing, because they run entirely on hot air.
Coincidentally, I was just reading about Iota yesterday. The super-condensed summary, for /.ers who don't want to look it up: Instead of a linear blockchain, you have a directed, acyclic graph with multiple "last transactions". In order to carry out a transaction yourself, you must do a unit of work to create a node (block) that incorporates two previous transactions. Hence, there are no miners, and also no transaction fees. Those are the positives.
The Iota whitepaper mentions a number of - as yet unresolved - problems. For example, double-spending is entirely possible. In addition, my first impression is that you simply have to trust that everyone is running software that honestly implements the algorithm. For example, part of your duty when creating a node is to check past transactions for consistency. What if you deliberately fail to do that, because the inconsistent transactions are to your benefit? In addition, the directed graph can diverge for long periods of time - indeed, diverging branches never need to be reconnected - so there are a lot of potential ways to cheat.
Maybe a failure of understanding on my part, but: I don't understand cryptocurrencies where all currency units are created in the genesis block. Maybe the algorithm is a fun technical toy, never meant to be used in reality? Otherwise, why should anyone use a currency where one person initially holds all the wealth?
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
Sustainably organic!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
This startup is one of Moshe Hogeg's startups. It's probably a money-laundering vaporware product, as none of his previous startups have actually done anything.
Note that this is the guy behind the infamous Yo app.
The only smartphone that is secure enough to hold cryptocurrency is the the one that is not connected to anything at all.
Why would you want a phone that requires a college degree to operate?
Do you even think before you speak / type? A simple UI is a UI that actual people want to use.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
How about a smartphone that sells for, say, $200 to $300, that's actually secure, instead of the 'security collander' that pretty much any smartphone currently is?
That's the main reason why I don't have or want a smartphone: total lack of security, and for that matter, a total lack of access to the OS at the level needed to make it secure.
Until such an animal exists I'll just stick with the cheap-ass $50 dumbphone, that stays turned off 95% of the day anyway, and which is probably not hackable (or at least not hackable in any significant way).
And...how is it any more secure than any other phone?
The fundamentals of security don't depend on a phone being a "blockchain phone," whatever that means. In any case, blockchain isn't about higher security, it relies standard encryption algorithms.
Maybe "blockchain" is just a label to sell a product?