Bangladesh Regulatory Commission Approves “World’s First” Blockchain Smartphone; Finny

The Switzerland based Sirin Lab’s smartphone manufacturers, Finney has revealed that the first blockchain-enabled smartphone will soon be available to be purchased in Bangladesh. The smartphone is supported by a decentralized ecosystem for applications, has a built-in cryptocurrency hardware wallet, and facilitates secured communications.

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) also approved Finney’s import in August this year.

Notably, Finney managed to raise $157.8 million for the development of the blockchain phone via an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017. This blockchain-based phone was designed and manufactured by the Foxconn Technology Group, a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturing company with the highest security standards set in place.

Emphasizing on Finney, Sirin Lab’s co-founder and co-CEO Moshe Hogeg says;

The Finney phone is a one-stop-shop, Moshe said. Before the Finney, you needed a ledger, you needed a computer, you needed wallet software and then you needed to go to an exchange, and then you could convert. The Finney does all of this on one phone.”

Anyone who has set his device to automatically connect to a known Wi-Fi network, like many of us do, could have the device connect to a malicious network at any point in time without his knowledge. In doing so, the entity operating the malicious network is able to collect the information keyed in on the websites that the person visits through the network.

One might think that launching a phone in Bangladesh is not a good strategy. However, a report by GSMA intelligence proves that 75% of the population (138 million) will have access to smartphones by 2025. BTRC data shows that the number of subscribers in the country reached 158.438 million in February. Bangladesh has now four mobile companies, three of whom including Grameenphone, Robi and Banglalink are foreign-backed cellphone operators.