Solana Labs, the company behind the Solana blockchain and the cryptocurrency of the same name, announced on June 23 the launch of a smartphone designed to accommodate Web3 technologies. Developed in partnership with Android and Osom, a start-up specializing in privacy, the Solana Saga is expected to be released in 2023.
The first smartphone designed for Web3
On the Web3, it is very often necessary to have a computer available to sign transactions, mint new NFTs or new cryptocurrencies. For Solana Labs, the lack of mobility offered by the projects created for this very young version of the Web represents a major obstacle to their mass adoption. With Saga, the Californian company hopes to solve this problem. Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder and CEO of Solana Labs, explains that “ I think that’s something the industry fundamentally needs to do. We haven’t seen a single crypto feature at Apple’s WWDC, 13 years after bitcoin was born. I think it’s time for crypto to go mobile “.
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To make it easier to browse the Web3 and use the Solana blockchain on the device, Solana Labs technicians unveiled the Solana Mobile Stack (SMS), an open-source development kit available to developers. It offers many features such as a cryptocurrency storage service, the Seed Vault, a mobile-friendly crypto wallet, Solana Pay, a payment solution for Android and a decentralized application store.
The device should have a storage capacity of 512 GB as well as a 17 centimeter OLED screen. Its release is estimated in the first quarter of 2023 at a price of 1,000 dollars.
A big bet for Solana Labs
If Solana Labs succeeds with the launch of the Solana Saga, the company could be propelled to the same level as the mobile telephony giants. The company, behind one of the most widely used NFT platforms in the world, had nearly 2.3 million active users in June, a 44% increase from December.
For the moment, Solana Labs is trying to win over a small group of potential customers who are already familiar with Web3 technologies. Anatoly Yakovenko precise that ” [Solana Labs] will start by targeting a group of consumers who like these kinds of products and grow from there “. If the Saga meets the expected success, it could well interest people totally unfamiliar with cryptocurrency who want to try it.