Blockchain smartphones may soon become the new fad and one hip hop legend wants to make sure residents of the United States get their hands on it first.
Pras Michel, a popular American rapper, and humanitarian, has launched a platform Blacture, which will introduce the first blockchain-based smartphone designed for the United States market. The Grammy award winning legend announced Blacture—which seems to be derived from black culture—on Wednesday, May 2. while giving a keynote address at the University of Pittsburgh.
The blockchain smartphone, Motif is part of broader plans of Blacture which seeks to give “both voice and access” to the black community in the US. According to a press release, Blacture’s mission is “to uplift the Black community through economic empowerment.”
About Motif – A Smartphone, a Zippie (blockchain) OS, and a Digital Wallet
According to the announcement, the Motif, which would look pretty much like any other smartphone, will be powered by Zippie Operating System created by blockchain company Zippie. The Zippie OS is designed to reward users with cryptocurrency each time they carry out certain activities with the device. Activities like online purchases, data sharing or products/services offering to the Blacture community may attract token rewards.
The smartphone comes with a built-in Motif digital wallet which stores the tokens and is linked to a special Motif debit card which can be used for transactions in the dollar equivalent of the tokens.
Blockchain Smartphones: The New Fad?
Whereas the Motif blockchain smartphone is a laudable initiative, it is not the first of its kind. Several blockchain startups are considering and even developing similar phones that run on blockchain OS. One of such ventures is Sirin Labs and it’s much anticipated Finney smartphone.
Sirin Labs, which signed Lionel Messi as its brand ambassador, has partnered with Foxconn to create a blockchain smartphone designed for easy trading of cryptocurrencies. According to their announcement, Finney will be available in a few countries by October.
Another blockchain smartphone, BitVault created by Embedded Downloads has already hit the market. Unlike Motif and Finney which are designed for the consumer market, Bitvault was designed to help military beef up security using blockchain technology.
According to the press release, the Motif smartphone is expected in the markets this fall and would retail between $350 and $395.
Solomon Sunny is the market reporter for Smartereum, one of the global leaders in Ethereum, blockchain and currency news. He produces technical price updates on digital currencies and writes recent developments about blockchain.
