Tag: Bitcoin

HTC Exodus 1; Crypto Mining Smartphone Launched

Though HTC’s sales have been plummeting, they are known for making smartphones with revolutionary features. Some examples include: Beats audio integrated smartphones , ultra-pixel camera in their HTC One and the Active edge technology.

Active edge is a feature with which the user can squeeze the smartphone bezels to toggle certain actions like activating Google Assistant and more. It was first seen on the HTC U11 and now can be seen on the likes of Google Pixel 2 & Google Pixel 3. Recently, HTC has released yet another revolutionary smartphone that can mine cryptocurrency like Bitcoin and Ethereum. The smartphone is called the HTC EXODUS 1.

The HTC EXODUS 1 uses blockchain technology to improve security on the smartphone and is also responsible for mining cryptocurrency. Blockchain is a digital ledger which records transactions made in bitcoin or another cryptocurrency which are publicly available.

HTC EXODUS 1 Specifications

The HTC EXODUS 1 has a 6 inch Quad HD+ display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. The phone has 12 MP + 16 MP dual rear cameras and 8 MP + 8 MP front cameras that support natural Bokeh effect. The rear cameras can record 2160p videos @ 60 fps with HTC’s 3D audio recording. The HTC EXODUS 1 runs on the Octa-Core Snapdragon 845 SoC and now has Active Edge 2.

In terms of storage, the device has 128 GB of UFS 2.1 ROM and 6 GB of DDR4x RAM. The device is IP 68 dust & water resistant and supports Single Sim 4G LTE. It has an inbuilt Zion wallet that securely stores the cryptocurrency. The HTC EXODUS 1 runs on Android Oreo and has a 3,500 mAh battery with fast charging support.

HTC EXODUS 1 Price & Availability

Also Read: Samsung’s New Patent To Make The Entire Screen A Fingerprint Reader

The HTC EXODUS 1 has a price of 0.15 Bitcoin or 4.78 Ethereum (around Rs. 70,000). It is available for pre-order now and the deliveries will commence in December 2018.

October 23, 2018
HTC To Launch Exodus Blockchain Smartphone On October 22

HTC has teased its very own blockchain smartphone in an Instagram post. The device, named Exodus, will launch on October 22. This is the world’s first major blockchain phone. The announcement about this was made earlier this year, in May. Blockchain refers to the decentralised ledger technology which underlies cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The HTC Exodus is a crypto phone that supports cryptocurrencies. Rumours also say that you will be able to purchase the phone using cryptocurrency.

Also Read: Samsung To Launch Foldable Smartphone Soon

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo10uP_hptt/?taken-by=htc.exodus

The teaser on Instagram does not reveal anything about the device other than the name and the launch date. However, reports tell us some of the details. The software used in the phone is not Android, but is based on it. The device includes some security protocols which handle the required encryption for the safe transfer of currency, according to reports. The company also revealed that the device has a new trust execution environment. This keeps the cryptocurrency safe and secure in an ‘enclave’ within this trust zone. It also has a ‘Social Key Recovery’ which prevents hackers from getting access to your wallet.

Siri Finney

A Switzerland based company, Sirin Labs was the first to make a commercial Blockchain smartphone, going by the name Finney. The device features a built in ‘cold storage’, peer to peer resource sharing and other Blockchain elements. It features a 6-inch display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. The display also features a notch. The device has a 12 MP main camera and an 8 MP front camera. The Finney costs $ 999 and is available on pre-order.

HTC had earlier mentioned that for the phone to be truly successful, they need support from cryptographers and the cryptocurrency community. Nothing about the other features of the device is known as of now. However, reports suggest that the phone will cost around $ 1,000.

October 15, 2018
Atari Announces New Cryptocurrency Called Atari Token

Atari is venturing into a new business of cryptocurrencies with Atari Token. The company has partnered with a brand Infinity Network, which is the creator of blockchain based Atari Token. The company is also planning to create a new digital entertainment platform using the same. It looks like the crypto has already started to pay off, as the latest Bloomberg report suggests that, the stock of the company has already spiked up to 60%.

Atari is mainly known for arcade games and video games, but the name has been also associated with movies and music as well.

Infinity Network has signed up for a long-term contract to use the name Atari. In exchange for this, the French company gets a minority stake in this new entity.

The company is creating a new digital platform, which will help the customers to make transactions using Atari Token. The company will continue its partnership with Pairplay to create a “Pong Coin” based on Atari Token exclusively for “crypto casinos”.

What is Cryptocurrency or Atari Token?

Every US dollar or an Indian rupee printed has to be directly proportional to the gold that country has, the value fluctuates with the actual gold value. However, the cryptocurrency is a digital asset, which works independently. Cryptocurrency value depends on people, if people think it has a value, then the price goes higher or vice versa. Hence there are no entities that actually controls these currencies.

The creator of the cryptocurrency can limit the number of tokens or coins. It all depends on the demand. The recent rise and fall of the Bitcoin explain this phenomenon in the simplest way. If more people buy, the prices go up or vice versa.

February 17, 2018
Bitcoin Reaches All-Time High, Approaches USD 10000

Bitcoin has reached an all-time high of over USD 9800 and is fast approaching the psychological USD 10000 barrier. At the current rate, it is worth more than seven times an ounce of gold. The cryptocurrency, which started the year at USD 1,000, had reached USD 5,000 by October.

Experts believe that the cryptocurrency is more volatile than ever. Neil Wilson, a senior market analyst at ETX Capital said:

Rather than a commodity or currency, bitcoin is like owning stock in a company that will only ever issue 21m shares and never pay a penny in dividends.

The only way it has value is if the next guy is willing to pay you more for it – the greater fool. With no intrinsic value to bitcoin, it’s hard to see this as anything other than a giant speculative bubble

Bitcoin is a type of cryptocurrency which operates on the encryption technique but, does not have a legal backing from the central bank. It is an unrelated digital private currency created by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008.

Bitcoin has no value as it is like a digital form of private currency and does not have any underlying asset of value -base.

Bitcoin should not be confused cryptocurrency or blockchain. Cryptocurrency is a digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds.

November 28, 2017
Bitcoin Transactions Face Massive Delays; Currency’s Design Flaws Exposed

Flash back five years and Bitcoin, the crypto-currency that so tantalized techies and excited investors were on the rise, but it is a completely different state of affairs today for this digital currency of the future. Its core community is at war with each other and ordinary consumers still don’t care about this supposedly revolutionary form of money.

Now making things more difficult for Bitcoin, the currency is facing a new issue which could spell doom for its existence. As of now, time taken for Bitcoin transactions to be processed has increased dramatically resulting in funds being stranded, and organizations are not accepting transactions in the cryptocurrency.

The current problem is not something that has hit the community out of the blue, as many within the community who use or work on the currency have been pointing out this looming issue for some time. The problem relates to how transactions are processed on the Bitcoin system, the decentralized, distributed ledger technology that manages transactions of the currency.

Bitcoin’s design which is capable of processing at best only seven transactions per second hit its capacity limit, leading to a backlog of stranded transactions being built up. Currently, there were about 20,000 Bitcoin transactions waiting to be processed.

The Bitcoin currency transaction design is as such that many of these transactions will go faster than other, depending on how much the transaction is deemed worth of in monetary terms. Transactions on Bitcoin can be put ahead in a que by adding a fee to the Bitcoin transaction, essentially meaning that those who didn’t pay such a fee or a sufficiently big fee may have to wait hours and in the current situation days for a transaction to complete.

Bitcoin’s overall capacity has hence become a major problem for its existence. Stopgap measures to increase the capacity have been suggested and implementation of it might hardly be months away, but will only delay the inevitable.If things have to be fixed, then the voices coming from the user community needs to be heard and a radical rethink of the currency’s design needs to be looked at.

March 5, 2016