Sirin Labs’ New Finney Device Has Mobile Payments in Mind

December 4, 2024         By: Steven Anderson

There’s a lot to like about the concept of cryptocurrency, though there’s more than a little to dislike as well. One of the biggest problems is a distinct lack of ease of use in many settings, where you can even use cryptocurrency to begin with. Several developments have helped on this front, at least somewhat, and now, Sirin Labs has introduced a hardware-based solution that should help even more: the Finney.

The Finney is a mobile device that’s being called the first-ever blockchain phone. It’s set to sell through not only the Sirin Labs site, but also on Amazon’s Launchpad program. Additional sales are set to roll out later in both London and Tokyo at stores established for just such a purpose.

You’ll be able to get one for $999, and contained within it will not only be a phone, but also a cold-storage crypto wallet. A cold-storage wallet, for those not familiar, is an offline tool designed to store cryptocurrency and make it largely inaccessible to potential thieves. Those who are already SRN token holders have early access to the pre-sale, and those who want to use credit cards or similar instruments to buy the device will be able to do so later on.

Sirin even plans to take its act on the road, bringing its original Sirin OS system to other devices, allowing them some access to cryptocurrency-related functions.

It’s great that the Finney has cold-storage capability for currently-existing cryptocurrency, but there’s so much more such a device could do. For instance, why not build in a system that allows the crypto to be more readily spent with retailers? We’ve already seen examples of technology like this in play, and adding that on to the Finney would certainly improve its prospects. Better yet, why not go whole hog and make the Finney capable of mining crypto as well? That would make it an end-to-end solution; it could mine it, store it, convert it to cash and spend it, or accept it in from other sources.

A complete mobile solution like that would likely help perk up cryptocurrency’s future outlook, and make the Finney the must-have system for any cryptocurrency buff. Right now, though, it seems like it’s stopped just as it really got started.