HTC Exodus 1 Blockchain Phone Now Available For Purchase With Cash

The hype and scandals around blockchain and cryptocurrencies may have died down a bit but some companies are far too invested in it to leave things as they are. HTC is perhaps one of the oddest proponents, having committed its phone-making resources to support blockchains and the Web 3.0 movement. Now it is taking one step further to make its HTC Exodus 1 blockchain more accessible to the masses by putting it on sale for real, physical money.

As a blockchain phone, it was only natural that the HTC Exodus 1 be available for purchase using cryptocurrencies, initially only bitcoin and ether. That, however, severely limits who can buy the odd smartphone, much less who can benefit from what the whole thing is about in the first place.

Blockchain's core principle is that of decentralization, where there is no single "blessed" authority for transactions or, in this case, mobile apps. This has security and integrity advantages because there is no one target that could bring down the whole ecosystem. HTC even had this social key recovery idea that lets users split their private keys among trusted contacts and recover each piece should they lose that private key.

The HTC Exodus 1 can now be purchased online for $699 or equivalent flat currencies. This move may have been in response to Samsung's announcement of supporting blockchains on its new Galaxy S10 series. HTC has also partnered with browser maker Opera to bring their two products closer together. Opera is the first to have a Crypto Wallet built into the browser.