By Sandra Quinn

The world’s first blockchain phone has been unveiled and it will cost you the princely sum of close to $1,000.

Developed by Sirin Labs in Israel and called the Finney phone in honour of bitcoin pioneer Hal Finney, the idea behind the phone is to make cryptocurrency available to all at an affordable price point of $999 (although I think the concept of affordability very much depends on your pay cheque and priority list – for many, rent or a mortgage might take precedence).

One of the most interesting design features of this phone is that is is dual screened and comes with its own cryptocurrency wallet.

The creators have described the phone as “an ultra-secure blockchain smartphone”.

Some of the shiny new features include 6GB RAM, 128GB storage, which you can add to with an SD card, a 3280mAh battery and a Snapdragon 845 processor, while it also runs on its own Sirin operation system.

This operating system offers security services, such as secured communications, a behavioural based Intrusion Prevention System and three-factor authentication.

The Finney phone is currently available for pre-order and HTC are already following suit, as the HTC Exodus is due to go on sale in the third quarter of this year, but HTC are remaining tight lipped on any features so far.

Time will tell whether or not this marks the new age of smartphones, but if we have learned anything from the emergence of blockchain, it is that it is paving the way for the future, so watch this space.