Smartphones have become a necessity in developed nations. In fact, nearly 75% of all the top ten developed countries’ population own a smartphone. According to exploding topics, there are over 7.2 billion smartphones all around the world. You can imagine that this number is racing against the total world population. In the next few years, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the number of smartphones was more than the number of people.
When you look at the current generation, all they are seeking for is convenience. It is no wonder that all kinds of businesses are curating their services to work through mobile phones (the most convenient gadgets ever). The financial sector is one of those sectors that has not been left behind. Especially now that people are getting more accustomed to digital tokens like Ethereum, Bitcoin, etc., smartphones have really come in handy.
With the number of crypto owners globally being more than 560 million, crypto trading platforms are increasingly optimizing for mobile platforms to make their services accessible and improve the user experience. For instance, you can easily follow up on daily Bitcoin price changes to get to understand how you can make your investment decisions.
Improved user experience
Improved user experience is a selling point that smartphones thrive on. A number of crypto exchanges have even launched mobile apps that allow you to manage your portfolio easily. A process that would initially feel like rocket science has now been reduced to a few taps on the phone, a transaction process that anyone can do. If a platform does not have an app, then its site is well-optimized for mobile use.
One thing that makes these mobile platforms convenient is the user interface designs. They are designed in such a way that customer satisfaction is greatly achieved. Talk about elements like clear buttons and labels to make it easier to navigate and complete tasks instinctively. From the experience of different platforms, it is quite clear that users prefer sites that are UX-friendly. Actually, a Google survey reported that 74% of people are likely to go back to a mobile-friendly site. So, exchange platforms have been capitalizing on this fact, and you can be sure that it has been working.
Crypto platforms have inbuilt charting software that allows the user to see price charts and real-time market depths and order books. All these help the user to spot any pattern or trend in the market, allowing for good decision-making. Other platforms personalize your experience by enabling you to get notified whenever a specific token reaches a certain level. This helps you take advantage of any market changes without you being glued to your screen the whole day.
Better security and storage of private keys
Mobile technology is dynamic with its technology, but crypto applications and platforms come with their own added security measures. Apart from just the two-factor authentication (which is already strong on its own), these sites incorporate KYC protocols and biometric authentication to ensure the highest levels of security and reduce fraudulent activities.
Smartphones have also turned out to be better storage for your Bitcoin private keys. If someone steals your private key, then you can count your coins as good as gone. That is why people resort to using storage like portable hard drives.
However, there have been a number of incidents where people have misplaced their hard disks and ended up losing millions worth of Bitcoin. The most famous incident is that of James Howell in 2013, who accidentally threw away a hard drive holding the key to 8000 Bitcoins. Calculate that in the current price, and it’s worth more than half a billion US dollars. And that’s where smartphone-based crypto wallets come in.
Smartphone-based wallets have been designed with an edge over other kinds of wallets because of the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) in smartphones. The TEE is a separate execution program that has its own memory and storage, which is completely isolated from the phone’s operating system. For instance, the Android OS cannot reach into the TEE even if the former gets compromised.
You see, if a private key is stored in a normal persistent storage like an SSD or hard disk on a phone or laptop, then when malware is sent, then it can easily be accessed. However, with the TEE, you can only access through a trustlet, meaning that the key is better placed. Applications like Samsung Knox have also come to add more protection on the TEE on top of the normal Android security.
The rise of crypto phones
Web 3.0 is advancing at a rapid pace, and we are getting to see the integration of smartphones and decentralized apps. Crypto-focused smartphones are hitting the market and are able to sync with decentralized features throughout crypto and blockchain landscapes. The first-ever crypto smartphone was the Solana Saga, which was launched in 2022. Since then, many phones have come up, including:
- Solana Seeker
- HTC Exodus
- Ethereum Phone
- HTC Desire 22 Pro
- Nothing Phone (1)
As we wrap up, it is clear that the world of cryptocurrency is being steered by smartphones in a direction that’s quite convenient. The improved user experience makes crypto trading much easier, while the increased security features allow crypto users to walk around without having to worry that they might lose their coins easily. In the coming years, you can be sure that smartphones will be ruling the crypto world, as you can evidently see from the launch of crypto phones.
