Polygon has announced a partnership with Nothing, the creator of Phone (1). The Ethereum scaling protocol’s tech will be integrated into Nothing’s first smartphone. While Polygon won’t be manufacturing its own smartphone, the partnership aims to bring crypto and NFTs to a larger audience by enabling access to Web3 functionality to such users.
The phone manufacturer will be airdropping non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to its community investors. Dubbed “Nothing Community Dots,” the membership program will enable members to access exclusive community content. Some special perks include discounts on merchandise, entry into unique offline events, etc.
This is the first step of the collaborative effort, which comes ahead of the virtual launch of Nothing phone (1) slated for July 12th.
“This launch is designed to take the Nothing brand beyond consumer tech, making it one of the first in the sector to bridge real-world products with the fast-growing Web3 space. In the future, the goal is to make all of Nothing’s phone products and other ecosystem devices future-ready by supporting sustainable and secure access to Web3 applications.”
In addition to apps and games on the Polygon platform, Nothing Phone (1) users will be able to access the network’s payments and future features, such as a proof-based identification solution, Polygon ID, etc. Polygon revealed that the end goal is to make all of Nothing’s phone products and other ecosystem devices “future-ready” by backing sustainable and secure access to Web 3 apps.
Blockchain smartphones have been around since 2018. In fact, the first wave of such products from giants like Samsung may not be a huge success, but players from the industry itself have pivoted towards this concept. One such as Solana Saga.
Last month, Solana unveiled a new Web3-powered smartphone, ‘Solana Saga,’ as well as a developer kit. The latter is called the Solana Mobile Stack and offers Android developers the necessary tools required to develop secure crypto wallets and Web3 apps. In a nutshell, Solana Mobile Stack will be pre-installed on every Solana Saga.
Despite these endeavors, demand for blockchain smartphones hasn’t really taken off since the likes of HTC Exodus debuted. Solana’s pitch isn’t very far from its predecessors either.