If you’re new to Crypto, you may not be familiar with Solana. However, if you are familiar with Crypto, you will know that Solana is a big player in the Crypto industry. At the peak of the last bull market, Solana was worth a whopping $258 dollars per coin. Those swing traders that rode the market all the way up would have made massive profits. With Solana releasing the new Web3 Solana smartphone “Saga,” will this change the industry, and if so, how? That’s what we’re going to look at in this post. So, please stick around.
A Brief Background on Solana
Solana was founded by Anatoly Yakovenko in 2018 and launched in 2020 by Solana Labs. Since then, Solana has grown into one of the most prominent blockchains in Crypto and is currently ranked no. 10 with the 10th highest market cap in the industry at the time this was written. They are most reputable for their NFT marketplaces and various other Crypto projects they have going on within the Solana ecosystem.
From a trading perspective, Solana did exceptionally well at the height of the bull market; however, it had some significant pullbacks due to technicalities. Solana had major outages, which halted transactions for a few hours each time. However, they were not the only blockchain this happened to; similar incidents have happened to several other big blockchains.
More recently, Solana took another significant blow to the ecosystem after Anatoly Yakovenko announced Saga at an event headlined by Sam Bankman-fried, CEO of FTX, currently being held on suspicion of fraud.
Anyhow, back to the main topic of this post.
What’s so Unique About the Solana Smartphone Saga?
The Solana smartphone “Saga” user interface is designed specifically for Web3; this is big news, as no other blockchain has yet been integrated entirely into a smartphone. There are a few other web3 smartphones in production from various other manufacturers. However, Solana is the first blockchain to release their very own web3 smartphone.
Saga has a unique feature, unlike alternative smartphones. They have created their own (SMS) Solana Mobile Stack. This inbuilt software enables users to integrate custom add-ons to send, store, and trade Crypto on their devices without needing alternative third-party Crypto software. Although third-party software does have security features accessible, like two-factor authenticators and secret recovery phrases to back up accounts, Saga’s inbuilt security is likely to be even more effective. Although, we have yet to discover.
What are the Main Features of Saga?
Saga has all of the features of your everyday smartphone. It has:
- 512 GB of storage capacity.
- It comes with both front and back camera lenses.
- A 6.67- inch OLED display.
- Fingerprint Scanner.
- The Android OS.
Solana’s Dapp Store
Like Apple’s app store or Google Play, Solana has created their own Dapp store, especially for Crypto apps. Currently, there are 16 Dapps, including Dao’s, NFT marketplaces, Staking, and other Crypto Dapps.
What will Saga Mean for Crypto?
Other web3 smartphone projects are currently in development. One announced at the end of 2022 is from Blizi Labs, a web3 smartphone powered by Polygon. There are a couple of others that have been developed, currently on the market. There is another web3 smartphone by Vertu. I wouldn’t say their phone is meant for the masses, however. I would say that Vertu is outside an affordable price range, with Vertu’s cheapest model costing approx. $3500 dollars. They do look nice, but they are a bit too pricey to be left lying around on the table. I’d say the Vertu smartphone is more of a fashion accessory, personally.
Saga, on the other hand, is within an affordable price range. The Saga is going to debut at $1000 dollars. That’s cheaper than an iPhone, with all the utility that Crypto currently offers. With the Crypto industry beginning to grow again, and the release of the new Saga, this could bring a lot more growth to the market. With the masses of people that use smartphones; this could mean a lot more people could begin to explore new methods of buying, selling, storing Crypto and collecting NFT’s through the use of smartphones. As the Solana Smartphone has yet to launch, there is no data from the user experience, so it’s just speculation at this time.
Even though they have taken several significant setbacks, Solana remains a very popular blockchain.
If you want to keep up with what’s going on over at Solana, you can find announcements at: Solana News
