2023 is the year that crypto leaves the virtual sphere and enters the real world.
While previously physical crypto products were limited to the likes of Bitcoin miners and nodes, 2023 saw many product launches aimed at a wider audience of mainstream consumers (although still early adopters).
That meant clunky user interfaces were gone, and sliding design echoes were in mainstream consumer electronics. From Web3 smartphones to NFT picture frames, we've rounded up some of the crypto kit that caught our eye in 2023.
Solana Saga smartphone
Launched in April this year, Saga is a smartphone designed specifically for the Solana ecosystem, built into a hardware wallet and with a native store of decentralized applications (dapps). It's the first step on the road to one billion people using crypto, Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko told Decrypt, and it's an impressive first effort. Decrypt called it “polished and premium,” with “tight and intuitive” Web3 integration, though there were a few hiccups along the way.
Of course, at $1,000 for a Web3 component, you're paying a hefty premium for a phone that doesn't quite match high-end offerings from the likes of Apple and Samsung. Or you were.
In recent weeks, Saga smartphones have been flying off the shelves at a discounted price of $600, after some entrepreneurs found the BONK meme coins bundled with each device to be worth more than the smartphone at its current price. Good luck getting your hands on it now; With Saga phones sold globally, Solana Labs is weighing its options.
Treasure Safe 3
As crypto exchange hacks and failures continue to make headlines, more and more crypto users are turning to cold storage to keep their holdings safe.
Crypto hardware wallet maker Trezor has stepped into the breach with its new Trezor Safe 3 device targeting “new entrants” into the crypto space. With a sleek design and simple user interface reminiscent of mainstream consumer electronics, it certainly fits the bill.
Mosaic frame
If you've spent thousands of dollars on NFT artwork, you'll want to share it with the world — and a smartphone screen just won't cut it. An entire industry has sprung up offering NFT lovers digital art frames so they can hang their versions of Chromie Squiggles and Beeples on their walls. There's no shortage of options on offer, but we were impressed by the Muse Frame offering when London's renowned Saatchi Gallery used it to display a collection of NFT artworks, marking a milestone in the art world's adoption of the technology.
Available in sizes up to 55 inches, with rotating mounts, 4K displays and HD speakers, and an anti-glare screen, the Muse Frame pairs with a smartphone app that lets you slide your digital art in and out.
Trezor Keep Metal
Even crypto hardware wallets are vulnerable to theft or damage, so it's wise to back up a memory recovery seed. Metal wallets are one of the best ways to do this—more durable than paper, they're the best way to protect your genealogy from fire, flood, and whatever else life can throw at you. including hydraulic presses and acid baths.
Newly launched this year is the Treasure Gift. Made of aerospace-grade stainless steel, Treasure Cape Metal allows you to type the first four letters of each word of a 12-word recovery phrase. It can be sealed with a tamper-resistant sticker for security.
Nike x RTFKT Dunk Ghost Edition and Dunk VOID Edition
Nike and its crypto subsidiary RTFKT have launched sneakers before, but the launch of the RTFKT Dunk Genesis sneaker was different. Where previous drops required users to buy NFTs to get real-world hits, these don't. But they're still tied to NFTs, with an embedded near-field communication (NFC) chip that allows the user to find a digital collectible and connect the product to its virtual twin.
It's an interesting move for Nike, and one that suggests it's looking to expand the reach of its NFT offerings beyond narrow crypto-savvy sneakerheads. Could this be the time for the Web3 fad to hit the mainstream?
Vertu Metavertus II
At the opposite end of the market to the Solana Saga smartphone, the Metavertu II is a great idea at first glance. Aimed at the 0.1%, the Web3 smartphone costs $9,300 and is wrapped in crocodile skin. But with the crypto nouveau riche showing no signs of going away, appealing to this new luxury consumer makes sense for the rejuvenated boutique smartphone brand.
And where credit is due, Vertu has gone above and beyond by packing in the Web 3 smarts. It features a new I-DID identification system that links a phone's IMEI number to a user's decentralized identifiers, creating a “passport to the Web3 world,” the company's CEO Gary Chan told Decrypt. Secure Element includes chip signature and ZK-proof smarts, while Web3 DAPs are managed by a separate parallel operating system.
“Some of our product features may be ahead of user adoption right now, providing functionality that users may not immediately use. In the coming years, these features may find their way into mainstream devices, but now you need to be able to stay ahead of the curve,” Chan said.
Meta mission 3
Mark Zuckerberg's virtual land grab has seen the meta firm lay claim to the term “metaverse” – something that has prompted web3 gaming firms such as The Sandbox and Animoka Brands to push the idea of an “open metaverse” as opposed to meta's “walled garden”. Approach.
Of course, we're still a long way from the promised land of decentralized metaversions where you can send your virtual goods to one platform or another as NFTs. This means that for now, the easiest way to experience the opposite of meta is that meta is a user-friendly offering.
Priced as a loss leader thanks to the Meta's deep pockets, the Quest 3 is easy to set up and packs high-end specs including eye-catching 2064×2208 resolution, up to 512GB of storage and a Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor and 8GB of RAM. You also get mixed-reality features, a first for Quest headsets.
