There are many cryptocurrencies that aim at mass adoption and thus at a real use as a means of payment, especially in the mobile world. Among them, one of the cryptocurrencies that has recorded a lot of media attention between 2017 and 2018 is certainly Electroneum (ETN).
Electroneum has survived the 2018 ICO bubble and has continued to work quickly and seamlessly on its roadmap, bringing some interesting products to market in the first half of 2019.
At the very beginning of the year, in fact, the company announced the first ETN branded smartphone – the Electroneum M1 – aimed at emerging markets, considering the low-end specifications. But this is not the only novelty announced in 2019. But first, it is necessary to have a look at the birth and characteristics of Electroneum.
Electroneum: the crypto for emerging countries
Electroneum is of British origin since the development team, led by CEO Richard Ells, is based in Kent, Maidstone. The ICO phase took place in September of 2017 and was one of the largest ICOs of all time in terms of the number of participants. During the ICO, 120,000 contributors participated and invested a total of $40 million.
ETN is a crypto that aims to be easy to use in order to achieve mass adoption.Â
To do this, the team developed a proprietary blockchain relying in part on technologies already encountered in Monero’s CryptoNight, from which it initially sourced the Proof of Work consensus algorithm. The strong feature of Electroneum, however, has been the user-friendly mobile application.
The application, available on Android and iOS smartphones, integrates the Electroneum wallet and it also allows mining the currency directly from the smartphone. It should be specified that this is not real mining but a sort of cloud mining for ETN users.
ETN mobile mining
One of the most innovative aspects of ETN was probably mobile mining. This can make professional miners laugh given the power needed to mine cryptocurrencies, but it actually has its own end.
In fact, mobile virtual mining aims to reward users who join the network, allowing them to earn a few dollars of ETN each month.
It is an initiative aimed at the poorest countries, where even just $4-5 a month can make a difference. Now that smartphones have reached these countries en masse, this could in turn trigger mass adoption of the ETN currency, precisely as designated by the goal of Electroneum. And it is for this reason that the company has announced the Electroneum M1 smartphone.
Electroneum M1: the company’s first smartphoneÂ
Announced at the Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona, the Electroneum M1 – the company’s first smartphone – is aimed at emerging markets. For this reason, the device features low-level specifications, comparable to other devices equipped with Android Go, a version of Google’s operating system designed for entry-level smartphones.
As reported by the CEO, the smartphone has a low cost of production and is sold at a very low price as the goal is not to make a profit but to contribute to the digitalisation of the poorest countries, to the spread of the brand and to the use of the services made available by the Electroneum application.
Through this application it is possible to virtually mine Electroneum, make payments and receive ETN.
Electroneum for purchasing data plans and minutes
During 2019, Electroneum also announced the possibility of purchasing Internet data, minutes and SMS bundles directly from the app by paying via the Electroneum wallet.
This feature is only available in certain emerging countries, given the agreements signed with the company Unlimited. The application includes a special section dedicated to the purchase of the various bundles available. This is a rather interesting use case for ETN, especially if related to the target users, i.e. citizens of emerging countries.
The cryptocurrency and capitalisation
There are ten billion Electroneum (ETN) in circulation, while the maximum circulation is set at 21 billion. These numbers are quite high, bringing the total capitalisation to about 45 million dollars. The maximum value reached, however, dates back to January 6th, 2018 for a value of about 21 cents per ETN.
The list of all the exchanges that trade with Electroneum is available on CoinMarketCap.
