On September 16, 2019, Bitcoin.com, one of the world’s oldest and most established cryptocurrency innovators with over 4.5 million wallet holders, and leading telecommunications manufacturer HTC announced a long-term partnership to drive crypto adoption. The HTC flagship EXODUS 1 smartphone becomes the first phone to provide Bitcoin Cash (BCH) support without requiring users to download a BCH wallet from an app store. Existing EXODUS 1 users will receive a pre-loaded Bitcoin.com wallet app after a software update.
Hardware-Level Security and Native BCH Support
Phil Chen, Decentralized Chief Officer at HTC, remarked: “The EXODUS vision has always aligned itself towards public blockchains and its fundamental transformative nature of the future of money and the Internet. The Zion Vault is happy to support BCH natively in hardware for security to go hand in hand with the BCH blockchain as an alternative to dominant payment rails and platforms.” The Zion Vault is HTC’s proprietary blockchain-based private key management solution, enabling users to securely store, send, and request bitcoin, ether, litecoin, stellar, selected ERC-20 tokens, and ERC-721 collectibles.
Long-Term Collaboration Roadmap
For Bitcoin.com and HTC, this is just the first step in a long journey. Future plans include offering special discounts when paying for phones in BCH, selling EXODUS phones on store.bitcoin.com, and more. Bitcoin.com’s CEO Stefan Rust noted: “There are so many synergies between Bitcoin.com and HTC. We are very excited to be on this incredible journey together.” Executive Chairman Roger Ver added: “Bitcoin.com’s partnership with HTC will enable Bitcoin Cash to be used as peer-to-peer electronic cash for all the EXODUS users around the world.”
About the Partners
Bitcoin.com is supercharged to change the world with Bitcoin Cash. Its suite of developer tools has been downloaded 36,000+ times from over 100 countries. HTC, with more than 20 years of foundational technology in mobile and virtual reality, is investing in blockchain through its EXODUS project, ushering in a new era of secure data storage and transactions, bringing blockchain technology mobile for the first time.
This partnership marks a significant milestone for traditional smartphone manufacturers embracing cryptocurrencies, potentially accelerating BCH adoption for everyday payments. Existing EXODUS 1 users can already experience the native BCH wallet, with more models expected to follow.