Solarium It has positioned itself as one of the most talked about projects in the world of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, but it wants to go one step further. Solana Labs, the company behind said blockchain, yesterday announced its first Android smartphone, specially designed to interact with web3. Is named Solana Saga and promises to reach the public in early 2023.
But what makes the Solana Saga a mobile for the web3? According to Anatoly Yakovenko, CEO of the company, the device will offer a very strong integration with the Solana blockchain. This translates into the inclusion of non-fungible token and cryptocurrency wallet features, a decentralized app store, or dappsand a payment platform called Solana Pay, among others.
But in addition to the Solana Saga, SMS or Solana Mobile Stack. It is an open source software development kit that allows the implementation of native Android web3 applications in Solana. The SDK in question includes a protocol to connect apps —both web and native— with wallets crypto, a secure environment to keep seed phrases or private keys protected, and the already mentioned gateway for payments with QR code.
To face the launch of its first smartphone, Solana Labs has created a subsidiary called Solana Mobile. The phone can now be reserved with a $100 refundable deposit and its final price will be 1,000 dollarswith a view to launching it in early 2023. Developers will be a priority at the time of the first deliveries, since the idea is to test the general operation of the device and integration with SMS.
Solana’s smartphone has its roots in Essential
Beyond the hype that Solana has tried to impress on the presentation of the Saga, there are several nuances that emerge from the announcement. The most notorious, without a doubt, is that the mobile in question is not a 100% original development, but a reconversion of the OSOM OV1. Said device, which promised to be formally launched at the end of 2022, will never see the light of day and its development will mutate in which it will try to position itself as the first mobile for web3.
It is worth noting that OSOM Privacy was born after the failure of Essential, Andy Rubin’s company. After the fall from grace of said undertaking, which only left us with the memory of the Essential Phone, some of its former engineers joined together to continue the development of a new flagship.
The Solana Saga will arrive with a design identical to that of the OSOM OV1, although with a much larger screen size: 6.67” vs. 5.7”. Under the hood, meanwhile, it will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1+ chip, 512GB of storage, 12GB of RAM, and a 4,100mAh battery. As for cameras, it will have a 50-megapixel sensor and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide sensor on the back; while on the front it will incorporate a 16 MP sensor.
As for the operating system, it has only been officially mentioned that it will run Android, but it has not been specified in what version or with what customization layer. As published AndroidPoliceOSOM mentioned that the smartphone will use a “proprietary version” of the softwarealthough without explaining anything else about it.
An initiative that generates mixed feelings
Solana is a project that generates love and hate in equal parts in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Therefore, it is logical that its intention to enter the mobile market generated mixed feelings between the public and the crypto community in general.
Many will wonder to what extent a smartphone strongly integrated into the Solana blockchain is necessary, and the question is very valid; especially, due to the notorious problems that the platform has presented in recent months. In early June, in fact, Solana suffered its fifth crash of 2022, which not only deepened criticism of its unreliability, but also affected the price of its token.
Solana’s followers assure that he has the potential to be the real Ethereum Killer, due to its lower costs and waiting times for transactions. However, its main critics claim that it is not a truly decentralized network, because the technical requirements to mount a node are very high; therefore, the necessary equipment is too expensive for anyone to become a validator.
The truth is that, as long as Solana does not solve its reliability problems, the usefulness of your mobile will remain under a blanket of doubts. It is clear, then, that its developers have a very high mountain to climb before reaching their goal.