HTC Blockchain Phone Exodus Sets Brave as its Default Internet Browser
According to a report by Finance Magnets, published on December 10, 2018, Taiwan-based mobile company HTC has that Brave (BAT) will be their blockchain-based smartphone Exodus’ default internet browser.
HTC Hopes to Regain Market Share through Blockchain
In May 2018, the Taiwanese company announced that it’s set to enter the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry with its premium smartphone, named Exodus.
The phone was released to the public in October 2018 with an in-built cryptocurrency wallet and a secure hardware enclave that would ensure a smooth running of decentralized applications or dApps.
Notably, co-founder of Litecoin (LTC), Charlie Lee, had tweeted on July 30, 2018, that he’d be working as an adviser to the development team at HTC. Unsurprisingly, soon after Lee’s tweet, HTC Exodus announced that they’d be enabling support for Litecoin.
Pushing on its crypto appeal, the company announced on October 25, 2018, that the blockchain-enabled phone could only be purchased with cryptocurrencies. The decision proved to be a tricky one for the already declining firm, as many feared that it could turn away some of the genuine customers interested in the potential of blockchain technology.
“Brave” Move by HTC
The latest development surrounding HTC’s Exodus is that it will have Brave as its default internet browser. This comes as a surprise to the majority of tech enthusiasts, given the fact that the smartphone runs on Google’s Android OS.
Typically, Android phones have Google Chrome as their default internet browser. However, HTC’s decision to set the default internet browser as Brave has certainly turned many heads towards the product.
Brave was created in May 2015 by Brendan Eich and Brian Bondy. It is an open-source web browser with ad-block features which have proved to be a massive hit among smartphone and desktop users. Notably, Eich was also involved in the development of Mozilla Firefox.
Brave’s long-term vision is to make using the internet an enjoyable experience for the users, devoid of unrequited advertisement and privacy intrusion which some of the other well-established web browsers have been accused of recently. To achieve this, the browser uses blockchain technology to create an ecosystem which rewards the users in cryptocurrency for consuming content.
The browser has its native cryptocurrency called Basic Attention Token (BAT), which recently gained a lot of upward traction in value after getting listed on U.S. based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
The team at HTC would expect that positive developments like these would put it at par with some of the rival brands, for example, the recently launched blockchain smartphone called Finney.
