On April 13, in San Francisco, the founder of Solana, Ukrainian Oleksandr Yakovenko, presented the company’s own smartphone worth $1,000 (for comparison, the iPhone 14 Pro model in the US can be purchased at a price of $999).
According to Coindesk, the crypto-smartphone called Saga is integrated with the Solana blockchain, which will help users make blockchain transactions and manage digital assets such as tokens and NFTs directly from the device. The client can confirm the transaction with a fingerprint, and the encryption keys will be stored in a special Seed Vault. Keeping the keys separate from the smartphone will protect them from hacking, according to Solana.
Device-specific apps can be downloaded from the Solana dApp Store. The company says it won’t charge a 30% commission — similar to what Apple and Google do in their stores. The publication Techspot, which has already tested the smartphone, notes that the following programs are currently available:
- Four wallets: Phantom, Solflare, Ledger and Squads
- Three DeFi apps: Marinade.finance, Jupiter and Mango
- The three NFT programs are Nokiamon, Minty Fresh and TIEXO
- Three social programs: Dialect, Audius Music and urFeed
- “Workspace” dApp
The device has 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of built-in memory, a 6.67-inch OLED display with a frequency of 120 Hz and a 50-megapixel main camera. It’s built on hardware from Bay Area smartphone maker OSOM. And, according to Solana, Saga is different from the Solana Mobile Stack (SMS), a set of user applications that integrate cryptographic functions into the phone’s hardware and software.
- Blockchain company Solana was founded in 2017. At that time, the startup presented a blockchain protocol that worked many times faster than Ethereum. The technology is also used to create platforms of other companies that develop applications and services for the decentralized Internet.
- However, last year’s crypto crisis, along with the fall of Sam-Benkman Fried’s FTX (whose Alameda Research was a long-time investor in Solana), affected the company’s financial success. According to Forbes, in the fourth quarter of 2022, the capitalization of Solana tokens collapsed by 70% – to $3.6 billion. Average transaction commissions decreased by 90.3%, turnover – by almost a third. At the same time, on the day of the crypto-smartphone presentation, the company’s capitalization recovered to $9.7 billion.
Oleksandr Yakovenko announced the crypto-smartphone 10 months ago, and then a number of companies, such as the Phantom crypto-wallet, the Magic Eden NFT-marketplace and FTX, announced that they had started cooperation with Solana in this direction. Essentially, this phone is the web3 industry’s attempt to compete with big tech vendors like Apple, Microsoft, and of course Android. On the other hand, it is aimed directly at cryptocurrency holders.
Solana’s crypto-smartphone will go on sale on May 8, but pre-order customers can get their hands on the device now. Saga owners receive $20 USDC and 0.01 SOL or $0.0026 as part of the dApp store welcome package.
Currently, the smartphone is certified for sale in 33 countries and the company plans to expand the geography later.
