Even Huawei has joined the game! These mobile phones have all boarded the blockchain train, can they mine as they please?

These days, if you don’t have something to do with blockchain, you’re not good enough. Now, a new group of people have appeared in the blockchain world, and mobile phone manufacturers have begun to “take advantage” of the blockchain trend.

At this point, everyone must have thought of the "world's first blockchain phone" released by Lenovo two days ago. I thought Lenovo was just trying to save its own mobile phone brand by taking advantage of the popularity, but some people even found out that they were too slow to take advantage of the popularity - the so-called "first blockchain phone" was released by someone 800 years ago!

Unexpectedly, today, Huawei also said that it would join the game. It is said that it is considering developing a mobile phone that can run blockchain-based applications. Now, people in the blockchain and currency circles are all excited: What kind of phone will this be? Can it mine? Can Huawei take on the responsibility of "blockchain smartphone"?

Hmm? The style of this comment is quite different...

Lenovo launches blockchain phone

On the afternoon of March 20, Lenovo, which had been away from the smartphone market for a long time, held a press conference in Beijing and launched three new models, K5 Play, K5 and S5. The reason why they were "away for a long time" is that the three new models all use the Lenovo brand, rather than the moto brand that just released a new model worth 10,000 yuan at the end of last year.

The configuration and pricing of the three new models are not particularly high. The top-end S5 is only 1,499 yuan: 6-series aluminum alloy body, 5.7-inch 18:9 screen, 13 million + 13 million dual cameras, 3GB RAM and a Snapdragon 625 processor that has been polished by the industry for two years.

I have to say that such a configuration is really inconspicuous, and it won't make any waves even if it is thrown into the current sea of ​​Android phones.

But the "high-end" feature of this mobile phone is that it is labeled "blockchain".

Chang Cheng, the speaker at the press conference and vice president of Lenovo Group, claimed that this is the first mobile phone that truly applies blockchain technology to the field of mobile phone security. It is reported that Lenovo S5 has an encrypted secure payment space "Z Space", which uses blockchain technology to provide a complete set of solutions from the bottom of the mobile phone to provide users with all-round security in all payment scenarios. As for the specific technical details, Chang Cheng did not reveal more.

Unfortunately, even with the mysteriousness, consumers don’t seem to buy it. Some industry insiders said that this is more like a deliberate attempt to take advantage of the blockchain hype. According to a poll launched by Sina Mobile on Weibo, 67.8% of people believe that Lenovo’s blockchain phone is a “forced hype”.

What’s even more distressing is that Lenovo is slower than others in jumping on the bandwagon.

Disguised ICO? “Blockchain Phone” Can Also Mine!

In January this year, SUGAR Candy Mobile and the Ethereum Fog Foundation (ETF) strategically cooperated to launch the world's first blockchain mobile phone - the SUGAR "Genesis Edition" blockchain mobile phone, endorsed by Huang Zitao, which fired the "first shot" of domestic blockchain mobile phones.

According to reports, the Candy Genesis Edition S11 phone uses the Ethereum Mist (ETF) blockchain technology. The phone integrates a blockchain wallet and a blockchain mining machine, uses a 5.99-inch 18:9 full-screen, is equipped with a Snapdragon 8-core processor, a 4+128G memory combination, a front 800+16 million wide-angle camera, and a rear 800+10 million camera. It is priced at 3,999 yuan.

Officials said that the Candy Blockchain Phone is based on blockchain technology and is used for the "Candy Points" program. The mining mechanism does not require mounting a full node to mine, and can obtain Candy Points regularly. After the POC algorithm is upgraded, an external mobile hard drive can be connected to upgrade to a full node for storage and mining.

It is important to note that they are indeed mining, but they are not mining Bitcoin. According to the copywriting, the Candy Genesis version is a collaboration between Candy and the Ethereum Mist Foundation, which allows users to earn "Candy Coins".

This can’t help but make people wonder: Is this a disguised way of issuing tokens?

So, did anyone buy this phone? You wouldn’t believe it. On the first day of sale, all 10,000 “Genesis Edition” blockchain phones were sold out in just five minutes.

They are not the only ones targeting blockchain technology, Changhong is also one of them.

On the 16th of this month, Changhong launched the blockchain phone R8 Kirin, also claiming to be the world's first blockchain phone. The starting price of the phone is 2,999 yuan, and it is also sold in limited quantities.

According to Chairman Guo Dexuan, "This is the first Unicorn blockchain mobile phone developed by Changhong Communications specifically for Unicorn." It is based on the POW consensus algorithm, device fingerprint technology, and LBS location service. Its general function is: users can use Changhong mobile phones to mine, and use blockchain to record information such as fingerprints and geographic locations.

The core function is to allow users to participate in the blockchain with a lower threshold, that is, to use mobile phones to mine. This will enable the mobile trust network to have more and more decentralized nodes, providing a foundation for the large-scale application of the mobile ecological chain.

But the Unicorn mentioned in the report seems very mysterious. It is reportedly a blockchain project that claims to be able to "constrain the hegemony of miners", and there is very little information about what Unicorn can mine.

People who often mine should have a deep understanding that mining, especially Bitcoin, consumes a lot of electricity and burns up the machine. With a blockchain phone in hand, can users really "mine" as they please? What new gameplay and new technological breakthroughs do these three phones, all claiming to be "the world's first blockchain phones", have?

Huawei is also joining the game!

If the blockchain phones launched by the previous mobile phone manufacturers were suspected of riding on the popularity, then Huawei can be said to be the first mainstream mobile phone manufacturer to claim to be developing blockchain phones.

According to foreign media reports, Huawei is considering developing a mobile phone that can run blockchain-based applications. It hopes to obtain a license for Sirin Labs' SIRIN operating system so that it can run blockchain applications together with the Android system. At present, Huawei and Sirin Labs have officially met, but no agreement has been signed.

In fact, as early as August 2016, Huawei and Lenovo submitted patent applications related to blockchain at about the same time. Lenovo applied to the US Patent and Trademark Office for a patent for an electronic device to ensure the integrity of signed physical documents using blockchain technology. Huawei applied to the State Intellectual Property Office for a blockchain technology patent that supports P2P content distribution network verification functions. However, neither has been approved yet.

According to Coindesk, after nearly a year of behind-the-scenes work, Huawei launched a tool called Project Caliper to test blockchain performance. As a result, both parties are basically on the same page in terms of the development progress of blockchain technology. Obviously, both Lenovo and Huawei have "premeditated" their layout on blockchain, which can be seen from the time when they applied for patents earlier.

Are blockchain phones really “capable”?

Yan Zhanmeng, research director of Counterpoint, analyzed that at present, the promotional significance of blockchain mobile phones is greater than their practical value. GfK analyst Jin Ruizhao pointed out that the current application of blockchain technology is Bitcoin, but the value of mobile phones is still under observation.

It is undeniable that "blockchain" is hot, and everyone knows that things grafted with "blockchain" seem to have some "magic". Not to mention the mobile phone industry, how can we miss this opportunity?

However, some industry insiders said that the design of blockchain currently remains at the PC or server end, and the computing power of the mobile end is far from comparable to that of the computer. Is there any "urgent need" to implant blockchain applications in "blockchain phones"?

It is also understood that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is now promoting the establishment of a blockchain standard system. Will blockchain phones take off or fall flat?

It depends on whether the technology can keep up with the imagination.