Last year, smartphone manufacturer HTC released its first crypto smartphone Exodus 1. The smartphone received quite a lot of attention among people with a cryptocurrency interest due to its built-in hardware wallet, which allows users to safely store cryptocurrencies.
Now, HTC takes the next step in launching the descendent HTC Exodus 1S, which can not only store cryptocurrencies but also run a bitcoin full node directly on the smartphone.
A full node is basically a complete register of all transactions made on the bitcoin network since the cryptocurrency was founded back in 2009. As of today, there are around 9 000 active bitcoin full nodes around the world. These help to verify bitcoin transactions to avoid manipulation of the bitcoin blockchain.
Will be released Q3 this year
By launching a smartphone designed to run a full node, HTC hopes that more people will help to keep the bitcoin network running and by that also make it more stable and secure.
As of today, running a bitcoin full node requires around 200 gigabytes of storage, but HTC Exodus 1S uses a compressed light-version of the blockchain which “only” requires about 10 gigabytes of storage.
HTC hopes that their full node smartphone will make it easier for app developers to build decentralized smartphone applications, thanks to the direct access to the bitcoin blockchain.
HTC Exodus 1S will be sold for somewhere between $250 and $300, and the release is planned to the third quarter this year.
