The launching of smartphone powered by blockchain technology earlier this week in Rwanda made the news with a Singapore based startup technology company “Pundi X” unveiling the phone, XPhone, at the GSMA Mobile 360 Africa summit in Kigali.
The English daily ‘The New Times’ reported that unlike many phones powered by android, IOS and Windows systems, the XPhone is powered by Function X (FX) operating system – a blockchain system.
According to the newspaper, with XPhone, users are connected to the blockchain – everything they do from texting and calling to taking photos and browsing is transmitted via the blockchain.
Speaking at the launching of the new phone, Pundi X’s chief executive officer, Zac Cheah, said the technology enables people to own digital money and transact between themselves without the presence of intermediary or central authority like financial institutions.
In an interview with the newspaper, Mr.Zac said the startup company plans to produce only 5,000 XPhones in late 2019, but that it was looking to partner with telecommunication companies to produce more blockchain phones.
Meanwhile in another article, the daily newspaper “Taarifa” reported that GSMA 360 tech summit in Kigali has attracted 618 tech hubs from across the continent which are mostly based in Nigeria (85), South Africa (80), Egypt (56), Kenya (almost 50)
According to the newspaper, the African continent has currently some 396 million registered mobile money accounts which represent nearly half of total global mobile money accounts.
In addition to the coverage given to the GSMA Mobile 360 Africa summit in Kigali, Taarifa has also chose to illustrate current trends with infographics on mobile penetration and the economic impacts on using these technologies.
Currently official statistics show that six countries including giants such as Ethiopia and DR Congo still have penetration below 40 percent and 2G is still the dominant technology in Sub-Saharan Africa, but won’t be for long.
During 2019, hope is permitted since 3G will overtake 2G to become the leading mobile technology in Sub-Saharan Africa, the newspaper said.
CU/as/APA