HTC launches smartphone with Bitcoin full node capabilities

Six months after first announcing its new crypto-friendly smartphone, Taiwanese electronics company HTC has officially launched the EDOXUS 1s. The EXODUS 1s is a lower-cost version of HTC's flagship HTC EXODUS 1 device, which was first announced last October.

Unlike traditional smartphone devices, the EXODUS 1s will have a built-in cryptocurrency wallet and will have the capability to run a Bitcoin full node. The device will initially be available for order in Europe, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

“​EXODUS is about empowering the user. We gave users the ability to own their own keys, and now we’ve gone one step further to allow users to run their own full Bitcoin node. We are providing the tools for access to universal basic finance; the tools to have a metaphorical Swiss bank in your pocket." Phil Chen, Decentralized Chief Officer at HTC, says. "Full nodes are the most important ingredient in the resilience of the Bitcoin network and we have lowered the barrier to entry for any person to run a node, which is simply a computer, mobile in our case, participating in the global Bitcoin network that propagates transactions and blocks everywhere, which is the foundation and fundamental definition of a peer-to-peer cash system.​”