A "blockchain smartphone" is pure marketing fluff.
What this phone really is (or aspires to be), is a "hardware wallet" for crypto assets.
It's a flawed idea - a secure hardware wallet doesn't need anything else "running" in the kernel. Mixing a hardware wallet with the complexity of a mobile OS is terrible. Your attack surface grows by orders of magnitude.
If, instead, you need the hardware wallet only for "small" instant payments, then you don't need any hardware in the phone - just install a simple app and use that one.
> Mixing a hardware wallet with the complexity of a mobile OS is terrible
Would definitely agree. There are so many things that can go wrong. I mean, I've experienced just having 2FA on my phone and then the phone got bricked. Not having the 2FA QR codes backuped, and I was in some serious pain for a while.
People carry credit cards that need nothing but a signature -- a real written autograph -- for small payments, I think the barrier to entry in terms of security is pretty low, and the comparison between app and SD storage or app and HW storage with the ability to control the platform is a notable difference, if small though in comparison to a sheer unlimited amount of risk.
PS: So what, it can be in the same embedded system, it doesn't need to be bridged. The separate antennas might still communicate, though.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 40.4 ms ] threadWhat this phone really is (or aspires to be), is a "hardware wallet" for crypto assets.
It's a flawed idea - a secure hardware wallet doesn't need anything else "running" in the kernel. Mixing a hardware wallet with the complexity of a mobile OS is terrible. Your attack surface grows by orders of magnitude.
If, instead, you need the hardware wallet only for "small" instant payments, then you don't need any hardware in the phone - just install a simple app and use that one.
Would definitely agree. There are so many things that can go wrong. I mean, I've experienced just having 2FA on my phone and then the phone got bricked. Not having the 2FA QR codes backuped, and I was in some serious pain for a while.
PS: So what, it can be in the same embedded system, it doesn't need to be bridged. The separate antennas might still communicate, though.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/huawei-releases-bitcoin-walle...
'blockchain smartphone'... lol..