Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC is reportedly developing an blockchain-powered Android smartphone named “Exodus”, which will be equipped with a crypto wallet for various cryptocurrencies and allowed to run decentralized apps (DApp).

The company is the latest tech giant to ride the blockchain tide. It plans to create a native blockchain network with all exodus phones acting as nodes to facilitate cryptocurrency trading among the phone users.

Phil Chen (the creator of HTC’s Vive headset), who will leading the Exodus project, said,

“Through Exodus, we are excited to be supporting underlying protocols such as Bitcoin, Lightning Networks, Ethereum, Dfinity, and more. We would like to support the entire blockchain ecosystem, and in the next few months we’ll be announcing many more exciting partnerships together.”

It is noteworthy that HTC is not the first phone maker to come up with the idea of blockchain smartphones. Last September, Sirin Labs announced the world’s first blockchain smartphone – $1,000 Finney, which is slated to ship in October this year. Earlier on March 20, Lenovo claimed to unveil the first blockchain phone – Lenovo s5 in Beijing, with a quite competitive price starting from 999 yuan ($ 158). While 8btc noticed that few English resources related to s5 mention its blockchain feature.

Blockchain smart phones are touted to offer better security and user experience by integrating cold storage wallet into the phone, and enable direct crypto trading with peers within the phone’s network, free from mining fees.

While all these features can be realized on any smart phone by installing software alone. Days ago, Chinese smartphone maker Huawei has just announced to pre-install a crypto wallet app on its latest smartphones, but users from mainland China are not included to have access to its bitcoin wallet considering the country’s tough stance on cryptocurrency.

Will the company’s Exodus offer easier access to bitcoin for users in mainland China, and its new attempt in the crypto niche revitalize its mobile business with less than 1% market share? It remains to be seen.