Finney: This is the world's first 'blockchain smartphone'

The company behind the ultra-secure £12,000 Solarin smartphone is hoping to create the first "cyber-protected, blockchain-enabled" smartphone, designed to securely hold and transfer cryptocurrency.

Sirin Labs is planning a crowdsale event to raise funding for its new Finney electronics range, built for "the blockchain era". They include the aforementioned smartphone and an all-in-one PC. The start-up hopes to raise $100m (£74m) to fund development of the two smart devices, which take their name from the first person to officially receive a Bitcoin transaction, Hal Finney.

The mooted Finney smartphone is expected to retail at $999 and will be exclusively available to SRN token holders, which is the default currency for its Finney network.

It will also run on Sirin Labs' own Shield OS. Sirin claims this gives the device the "functionality of Android... plus a suite of cyber security technologies, giving users safe, reliable access to the blockchain."

The open source operating system has been designed to support various blockchain applications such as a crypto wallet, encrypted communications and a P2P resource-sharing ecosystem for payment and apps.

Together, the Finney devices form an independent blockchain network powered by IOTA's Tangle technology and Sirrin's own security platform. "Finney is free from centralised backbones and mining centers, capable of providing fast, fee-less and secure transactions," reads a message on the company's website.

"The current generation of smart devices compromises on user security. The focus is overwhelmingly on user experience, at a huge cost in fraud and cybercrime. We believe the digital economy of the future cannot tolerate this trade-off: device architecture demands a paradigm shift that enables true security, while maintaining excellent user experience."

The phone's "Cyber Protection" suite includes tampering and intrusion prevention systems, a physical security switch to protect the crypto wallet, and a three-factor authentication system that utilises a fingerprint scanner, a lock code and behavioral-based technology.

As for its traditional spec list, the Finney 'bitphone' sports a 5.2in Quad HD display, a whopping 8GB of RAM, 256GB of internal storage, a 16 megapixel rear camera and a wide-angle 12 megapixel selfie snapper.