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Smartphone maker's "first blockchain phone"

At the beginning of 2018, along with the domestic blockchain trend, several domestic mobile phone manufacturers successively released blockchain mobile phones, namely Candy Creation Edition s11, Changhong r8, and Lenovo S5. A few months later, htc also announced that it will release the blockchain mobile phone HTC Exodus. What is interesting is that these mobile phone manufacturers all call their mobile phone products the first blockchain mobile phone.

On January 17th, the SUGAR Candy Phone "Genesis Edition" was released. According to the official website, the SUGAR Candy Phone "Genesis Edition" is a joint development of blockchain software and hardware technologies and applications after the cooperation between SUGAR Candy Phone and the Ethereum Fog Foundation. A mobile phone on it. According to reports, the phone is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 chip, running storage space 4GB+64GB, battery capacity 3000mAh, priced at 3999 yuan.

The mobile phone adds a POC (proof of contribution) storage space mining mechanism through the Ethereum Fog blockchain network (ETF). "Dig" to EFT, in addition, users can also regularly harvest candy points.

Candy points can be exchanged for designated internal products and services in the candy physical store and application market. At the same time, the Ethereum Fog Foundation will cooperate with the candy mobile phone to develop a new generation of blockchain technology - fog computing software and hardware technology, with candy points Computing or storage resources of Candy Phone BCN (Blockchain Consensus Network) will be available.

The Changhong R8 Kirin blockchain mobile phone released on March 16 uses an MTK octa-core processor, only has a version of 4GB RAM+64GB ROM, and contains a 3000mAh battery.

According to the introduction, this mobile phone is the first mobile phone equipped with Unicorn blockchain developed by Changhong Communications for Unicorn. Based on the POW consensus algorithm, device fingerprint technology, and LBS location service, users can participate in the blockchain and make the mobile trust network have more More dispersed nodes provide the basis for large-scale application of the mobile ecological chain.

Unicorn itself is the basic underlying public chain. Based on the corresponding hardware equipment environment, it launches UIC application market, UIC browser, UIC wallet and other applications. Based on the Unicorn app, users can "mine" on Changhong R8 Kirin, and the reward is "Uker". But at the same time, it is also necessary to ensure that the Unicorn APP is always on, the network environment is smooth, and the power is sufficient. According to the reviewers, the mining process, wallet settings, account backup, risk assessment, block synchronization and other links, as well as the phenomenon of mobile phone heating, do give users a sense of anxiety. "Blockchain" feeling.

Unlike the SUGAR candy mobile phone "Genesis Edition" and Changhong R8 Kirin, which focus on mining, the blockchain gives Lenovo S5 security features.

Lenovo S5 released on March 20 is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, octa-core design, single-core frequency up to 2.0GHz, uses 3/4GB RAM+32/64GB ROM, supports up to 128GB memory card expansion, 3000mAh The battery starts at 999 yuan.

The concept of "blockchain" is reflected in the mobile phone's built-in encryption security payment space - the "blockchain" technology used at the bottom of the Z space payment area system. The payment system with "block chain" technology makes payment more secure. But in terms of specific manifestations and technical details, Chang Cheng said that due to policies and regulations, the current information about the blockchain cannot be disclosed too much.

The phone is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, has a combination of up to 6GB of memory + 128GB of storage, and a built-in battery of 3500mAh. The initial price is 0.15 bitcoin or 4.78 ether, and it is stipulated that it can only be purchased through virtual currency.

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Doubt and status quo

The first SUGAR candy mobile phone "Genesis Edition" was quietly launched on the official website in the early morning.

Changhong R8 Kirin was selected to be released at the unveiling ceremony of Zhejiang Zhijiang Blockchain Technology Research Institute and the world's first Unicorn smart device launch conference. The pre-sale first sold 10,000 units. It is stipulated that the exclusive purchase U code is required to purchase. Lenovo s5 is also a high-profile product released at Lenovo's 2018 new product launch conference, and announced that it will open reservation activities on its official website, Jingdong, Tmall, Suning and other platforms, and conduct limited first sales.

The sales method of HTC Exodus 1 is more in line with the concept of blockchain, and only the use of virtual currency can be used for purchase. According to the conversion of the value at that time, the initial price is about 6700 yuan. By the beginning of this year, HTC was open for purchase, and the price also changed with the value of the virtual currency, reducing it to about 4672 yuan.

The blockchain mobile phone not only makes a big fuss about the "blockchain concept", but also packs the test water sales more attractively. However, in the follow-up, there was a stagnation in the launch and iteration of new products in the direction of blockchain mobile phones.

According to reports, the SUGAR candy mobile phone "Genesis Edition" was sold out within 5 minutes after it went on sale on the official website. Changhong R8 Kirin is available in a few cities across the country, such as Hangzhou and Shenzhen, with a sales volume of about 30,000 to 40,000 units in two months. Lenovo s5 has more than 300,000 reservations for its first launch on the Jingdong platform, and some channels are out of stock for pre-sales.

At present, these blockchain mobile phones have already been removed from the official websites of relevant brands. The Lenovo S5, which has landed in the official flagship stores of Tmall, JD.com, and Suning, has also been removed from the shelves. The concept of blockchain is no longer mentioned. The control of the blockchain market in China has gradually tightened, and the boom in blockchain mobile phones has quickly subsided.

HTC is still insisting. Not long ago, it launched a new blockchain mobile phone Exodus 1s. The hardware configuration of this mobile phone has shrunk compared with Exodus1. It is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor and runs Android Oreo8.1 system. With 4GB memory + 64GB storage combination, 3000mAh battery, equipped with a digital wallet, holds a complete Bitcoin blockchain ledger, and can verify transactions and forward them to other distributed points.

However, since the complete bitcoin ledger size is about 260GB, if you want to store bitcoins with this phone, you need to equip yourself with a 400GB memory card. The price of this phone is around 1,700 yuan. It will be listed in Taiwan, Europe, the United Arab Emirates and other places, and will be accepted for purchase with equivalent virtual currency.

Is it to follow the trend and hype, or to open up a new and differentiated market segment?

Previously, Changhong R8 Kirin users reported that Changhong R8 consumes a lot of power and generates heat during mining. The cooperative Unicorn is more considered an air coin project.

Some people think that in terms of hardware, the CPU and GPU of mobile phones are several orders of magnitude different from those of computers, the operating efficiency is not high, and the built-in storage space cannot be compared with professional equipment. Especially for products that focus on mining concepts, blockchain The meaning of the mobile phone is greater than the actual function.

From the perspective of manufacturers, the four brands of Candy, Changhong, Lenovo and HTC do not have a large market share in the domestic market, and it is difficult to rank among the top. Lenovo is the only one on the list, ranking 7th, with a market share of 3%, a year-on-year increase of -26%.

On the one hand, as Luo Yonghao said, the smartphone industry has encountered innovation bottlenecks, at least the above-mentioned brands have encountered bottlenecks in the mobile phone business and urgently need to boost sales. Are these mobile phone manufacturers overtaking through new technologies or hyping through new gimmick packaging? The public is more inclined to believe the latter.

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After smartphone manufacturers, token projects come to share

In addition to smartphone manufacturers, blockchain companies have also begun planning blockchain mobile phones. There are also people who express their views from the perspective of the blockchain industry. They believe that under the trend of the mobile Internet, if the blockchain wants to truly create value for the society, and if the application scenarios want to be implemented on a large scale, it is inseparable from mobile terminals represented by mobile phones. . As a result, blockchain mobile phones with more blockchain apps installed.

This triangular blockchain mobile phone is used as the node of the project. According to the white paper of the project, all users can access the Whole Network through this mobile phone, and use IoT devices such as trusted sensors to read key data and record them on the blockchain. , allowing users to create ecological value and obtain behavioral value certificate rewards, that is, Node coins issued by the project party.

For the target audience, that is, coin speculators, the mobile app store has global blockchain applications, and users do not need to go to various websites to find links and download them. In addition, users can also set alarm clocks to remind them of the rise and fall of the currency prices they care about in real time. The blockchain design concept and functional embodiment of this mobile phone have also been joked by the industry as "stare at the disk when you turn it on" and "mining when you stare at the disk".

In terms of configuration, this triangular blockchain phone is closer to a thousand yuan smartphone, equipped with a P70 octa-core processor, 6GB+128GB storage space, and a battery capacity of 3900mAh, but the official price of the phone is 3699 yuan, and the first pre-sale price is 2999 yuan. In the marketing, it also launched the activity of buying NODE tokens to send mobile phones.

It is worth mentioning that it is reported that the operating company of the mobile phone and blockchain project is Beijing Acute Angle Network Technology Co., Ltd. In 2018, the company sold the token AAC, listed it on the Huobi Exchange, and launched hardware mining machines at the same time. In the end, some users reported that the triangle mining machine did not distribute the income according to the white paper settings, and the AAC mined through the mining machine could not be extracted. But AAC fell more than 97% and eventually broke.

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Does the blockchain mobile phone have a future?

On the one hand, the blockchain mobile phone is a hot concept that both smartphone manufacturers and blockchain project parties want to use. On the other hand, the blockchain mobile phone has also been proved to have imaginable development space and application scenarios.

On August 27 this year, the China Telecom Blockchain and Digital Economy Joint Laboratory released the "White Paper on Blockchain Smartphones in the 5G Era" at the 2019 China International Smart Industry Expo.

The white paper pointed out that the current blockchain mobile phone has not been widely produced. Most of the existing blockchain mobile phone merchants use blockchain wallets to hype market hotspots, and have not made breakthroughs in blockchain technology. Cell phones performed poorly, thus preventing their widespread use in the market.

The white paper also proposes several scenarios in which 5G blockchain mobile phones can be combined, including financial applications, digital identity authentication, supply chain traceability applications, judicial applications, and express delivery applications.

Digital identity authentication: Borrowing the decentralization of blockchain technology to verify user identity with ID, all interfaces can add this authentication identity to log in, so you don't have to worry about forgetting the user name and password of each website.

Financial applications: mobile phones can automatically record credit information with the help of blockchain program algorithms. When a loan relationship occurs, the bank can directly complete credit transfer through digital identity authentication. At the same time, customer information and transactions will also be recorded on the blockchain as a voucher.

Supply chain traceability application: The existence proof mechanism of blockchain timestamp can solve the uniqueness of participating data in the supply chain system, realize effective accountability and anti-counterfeiting, and integrate procurement, production, logistics, sales and supervision. In terms of judicial applications, blockchain mobile phones can guarantee the authenticity and uniqueness of electronic data, and the electronic data generation, storage, extraction, and verification systems based on blockchain are difficult to be tampered with. Therefore, it will be of great help to confirm the authenticity of Internet behavior and the validity of laws.

Application in the express delivery industry: Through the digital signature of the blockchain mobile phone and the encryption of the public and private keys, the security of the delivery information can be guaranteed, and the query can also be completed on the chain. In addition, the entire circulation record of the item can be traced through the blockchain mobile phone, and once counterfeit goods are found, issues such as false claims can be traced.

These five directions all mean that the blockchain mobile phone can take advantage of the non-tamperable, open and transparent security features of the blockchain technology to bring convenience to users.

When the 5G network, which has the advantages of high speed, low power consumption, and massive connections, encounters blockchain technology, it can help the blockchain to obtain shorter blockages by reducing errors and forks caused by network delays, increasing node participation and decentralization. Time may play a big role in improving the reliability and scalability of the blockchain network itself, and play a greater role in the above application scenarios.