With the advent of 2020, the world has formally entered into a new decade, which will assuredly bring new technologies and inventions, but also new perils. When it comes to menaces online, there is no deficiency of them.

Hackers and other cybercriminals appear to be everywhere, with malware, viruses, and alike continually getting more complicated. Meantime, the number of internet users across the globe is on a constant rise, making more and more people exposed to said threats.

This is no mystery, either, and some researches recommend that 8 out of 10 internet users feel helpless while online, with little to no authority over their data. So far, security researchers succeeded in convincing the powers of the dangers and the reality and cruelty of these threats. However, a few measures that were taken to decrease these threats have yet to bring any significant impact.

This is where blockchain technology, comes into action, ensuring a real method of improving security for the first time in ages. Nevertheless, with the number of mobile users consistently on the addition, there was a significant demand and an even more substantial lack of blockchain-based smartphones. A few efforts to make them in the past failed due to the absence of awareness, interest, or trust.

This is why CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2020 is presumed to be a significant game-changer, as it will present the world’s first blockchain-powered phone, called ‘Blok on Blok‘ (BOB). BOB is a product developed by a company Pundi X, headquartered in Singapore, and it serves as its first flagship smartphone product.

The phone was initially known as ‘XPhone,’ and it was introduced during the ‘Bali Blockchain Summit’ in 2018. After the Summit, the company rebranded and improved the phone, assuring the users’ complete privacy by generating a new operating system, f(x) OS (Function X OS). The system guarantees that each call, text, or other action, are made online by a decentralized app or browser.

While each BOB phone acts as a node of the network, which eradicates the need for a centralized service provider or carrier, simply put, the more BOBs there are in the world, the larger the system, and the stronger the decentralization.

Pundi X’s co-founder and CEO, Zac Cheah, said that the aim is to ensure that the users’ data will belong to the users themselves and that the last decade has demonstrated that users need to be more cautious with their information.

However, since it will take time for people to get used to the concept of a decentralized network for their phone, BOB will have an alternative to shifting between blockchain mode to more traditional states. This is attainable due to the Android 9 Pie OS.

In words of design, BOB has a retro-futuristic look, and each kit will involve the MOD assembly kit, including core components and various accessories.

While its default form feels futuristic and sci-fi, users will have the capability to customize its look through 3D printing. Meantime, the Function X Foundation plans to beckon designers from around the world and ask them to present their ideas for the blockchain-powered phone, occurring in 5-10 different MOD designs, in sum.

BOB can be pre-ordered. Early birds can foresee a discount, while the latest model can be seen at the CES 2020 at Sands, Hall G – 52501 in Eureka Park in Las Vegas, Nevada.