Whilst the current market for cryptocurrencies may not be so favorable right now (as of the moment of writing this piece, Bitcoin had once again tumbled below the $3,900 threshold after a couple of days flirting with $4,000,) they have become “mainstream” and a sizable percentage of the society is at least familiarized with the concept of digital assets, or tokens.
And when cryptocurrency-related benefits come embedded in a mainstream service, such as a smartphone, people quickly open their eyes. They do not want to miss out on an easy opportunity to obtain or mine cryptocurrencies without risking any assets of their own. Electroneum, a famous blockchain startup, is making huge strides by launching an accessible service with enormous potential.
A Very Nice Price for the M1 Smartphone
The company announced on Monday, February 25th, that it had launched a very affordable smartphone with the Android operating system and one notable trait: it can “pay back” the people who acquire it in cryptocurrency. And the best thing about the concept is the price: the device costs only $80, a cheap figure in an industry that sees phones being sold at more than $1,000 every day.
The phone has been named M1. It is a Google Mobile Services (GMS) certified smartphone that works under the innovative cloud mining technology integration, letting users to make crypto through an app. At first, the phone will only mine Electroneum’s token, the ETN.
$3 per Month through Cloud Mining
According to the company, people can receive up to $3 USD worth of ETN every single month thanks to the cloud mining system. After users configure the feature, it will be possible to mine the cryptocurrency whilst being offline.
Among the services and things that can be performed with the ETN cryptocurrency are paying for certain services (including mobile top-ups, shopping, and others.) ETN is also eligible to be traded on some crypto exchanges. At the moment of writing this piece, each token was trading at $0.0073, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The digital asset has a market capitalization of $65 million.
The phone itself is not too shabby: it comes with 4G connectivity, dual sims, 8GB of storage (expandable to 32 GB via a micro SD card,) front and rear facing cameras, and is powered by a Quad Core 1.3 Ghz processor.
Trying to Enter the Market in Developing Countries
Electroneum, in its page, explains that it uses “the power of blockchain to unlock the global digital economy for millions of people in the developing world. Helping everyone to live life on their own terms, our solution is enabling people to embrace their entrepreneurial spirit and find new ways to enhance their lives.”
The affordable prices are attributed to Electroneum’s desire to enter markets in developing countries and promote the adoption of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. The phone may be cheaper in some specific nations, around $60, as per reports.
Executives of the company recently stated that the phone will be first launched in South Africa, through local vendors and Amazon. They defended the choice by saying that they found out, through a survey, that over 95 % of the people prefer to use ETN to provide their mobile airtime and data payments. In order to maintain its network secure, Electroneum partnered with HackerOne, a cybersecurity company that is often used by the US Department of Defense.
By Andres Chavez
