Can smartphones take the Web3 wave to the masses?

For technology to leave its imprint on mankind, it must be scalable and can reach most – if not all – of humanity. That’s certainly been the case since the late ’90s, when the internet took its first steps towards the mass adoption we see today.

Before people knew it, they used mobile phones to communicate with friends and family. Almost 10 years later, towards the end of the first decade of this century, came the smartphones that went on to completely revolutionise how we conceptualise and experience technology.

Everything became mobile-first from banking to air tickets, stock broking to filmmaking. And today, as we rapidly take strides within another wave of internet evolution – Web3 – many are looking forward to that one technology that would catapult this wave to the masses.

Till now, there have been many contenders – virtual digital assets such as cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), blockchain-based decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs), decentralised applications (Dapps), and now smartphones.

However, one idea is fundamental to Web3 which distinguishes it from the previous two waves of the internet is the unending focus on building things that are decentralised to enable more autonomy for the consumer.

To add to the ever-expanding space in Web3, blockchain platform Solana launched the world’s
first Android-powered Web3 smartphone Saga last month. Many crypto enthusiasts – dubbed its launch as Web3’s iPhone moment and hailed Web3 smartphones as the next big revolution in the crypto space.

The smartphone space is dominated by the likes of Samsung, Apple and BBK Electronics, among others, and it took them quite a while to reach the top. For Web3 smartphones to enter such a heavily contested market and make a mark for themselves will be tough, particularly when overall adoption of Web3 has been slow and most of its facets such as cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and DAOs have been stonewalled by regulatory concerns worldwide.

However, one thing we have learned over the first three decades of the internet era is that new technology opens up new possibilities.

So what exactly are Web3 smartphones, and how are they different from the ones we currently use?

What are Web3 smartphones?

Simply put, Web3 smartphones contain a built-in hardware crypto wallet. This wallet works as an offline digital safe — protecting and encrypting users’ valuable private information like passwords, photos, and cryptocurrency keys. These phones also contain dApps that run on public, peer-to-peer networks instead of the private servers of tech companies.

While they are banking big on safety and security, the history of hacking and stealing of funds from different blockchains needs to be addressed since a decentralised system is usually beyond the purview of regulators. This makes encryption extremely crucial to guardrail the flow of sensitive data from one node to another.

How are they different from regular smartphones?

While Web3 smartphones look and feel the same as their regular counterparts, the difference lies in the in-built hardware wallet present in these phones. Apart from storing users’ private information, wallets provide an additional layer of security for users’ data as they are less susceptible to data breaches and hacks.

Major smartphone manufacturers such as Samsung and Huawei are making inroads into the Web3 infrastructure. Recently, Samsung US announced the launch of its official Discord server to support its Web3 activities and NFT distribution. Reports also suggest that multiple departments in Huawei are exploring Web3 with Harmony, Huawei Cloud, and Huawei Pay.

The first Web3 smartphones

Saga: Launched by Solana for $1,000 (about Rs 79,000), the phone is powered by Google’s Android and will feature a decentralised app store — meaning no fees for users. It also has a seed vault for storing private keys, and a software development kit to help developers build dApps. It’s not yet available to the public, with a launch set for early next year.

HTC Desire 22: Set to debut in India on September 30, 2022, it marks the debut of an existing smartphone player in the Web3 space. HTC’s phone will contain apps compatible with its metaverse platform Viverse. It will also let users trade cryptocurrencies and NFTs through, and connect with its VR headset.

Nothing Phone (1): Although not a Web3 phone entirely, Nothing – created by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei – has integrated Polygon’s blockchain technology to simplify users’ access to dApps, blockchain games, and payments through the Polygon network.

What does the future look like?

Currently, people’s confidence in crypto is waning owing to the ongoing crypto winter and giants like
Three Arrows Capital,
Voyager Digital, and
Celsius Network going bankrupt.

But with over 3.5 billion people worldwide using smartphones and the number expected to increase massively, Web3 smartphones stand a good chance of gaining mass adoption. For dedicated Web3 smartphone makers, the key holds in making the correct choice – going solo and taking on the giants or piggybacking on them with partnerships.