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Under-the-Radar Altcoin Surges 60% in 24 Hours Amid Network Expansion and Explosive Demand for Solana Smartphone

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Ethereum Rival Solana (SOL) Officially Rolls Out New Crypto-Friendly Mobile Phone ‘Saga’

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Solana unveils Google partnership, smartphones, Web3 store at Breakpoint

November 6, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Solana Breakpoint, a four-day conference scheduled from Nov. 4 to Nov. 7, attracted 13,000 people in just one of the four venues it’s being held simultaneously.

During the ecosystem’s annual gathering at Breakpoint 2022 in Libson, Solana made a series of launch announcements as it prepares to go mainstream. Cointelegraph’s ground team — present during the conference — shared insights into Solana’s roadmap, which includes the launching of smartphones, dApp stores and a partnership with Google Cloud, among others.

Good morning from @SolanaConf

Come say hi if you see us with our Cointelegraph merch

Follow this thread to get more updates you on this lovely event! pic.twitter.com/4m2jNaTSNS
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) November 5, 2022

Solana Breakpoint, a four-day conference scheduled from Nov. 4 to Nov. 7, attracted 13,000 people in just one of the four venues it’s being held simultaneously.

QR Code giveaways and GeoNFTs for Solana Store

Fortunately for Cointelegraph’s ground team, the venue featured Solana co-founder Raj Gokal and Solana Labs co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko.

Soon after, Vibhu Norby, the CEO and founder of Solana Spaces, took the stage to deliver an interactive presentation while asking attendees to scan QR codes to participate in a giveaway!

Norby further unveiled the Solana Store in Miami, showcasing a walkaround video of people checking out the store, as shown above. In addition, the CEO revealed that:

“Now anyone, anywhere can build their own Solana Store.”

While explaining the process of building a Solana store, Norby announced the launch of GeoNFTs — a nonfungible token (NFT) implementation — that allows users to geo-tag an area in their city. He further explained:

“If you have a GeoNFT, you can redeem it 1-for-1 with the exclusive rights to open a Solana store in that region.”

With GeoNFTs, Solana aims to empower solo entrepreneurs that wish to get into business.

Solana smartphones available for pre-order in early 2023

“It’s made for the people,” said the Solana mobile team while announcing the launch of its upcoming smartphones. Cointelegraph found that the preorders for Solana mobile phones will commence in 2023. However, the company is yet to declare an official date for its availability.

A differentiating feature of the Solana phone lies in its ability to securely store the private keys of crypto wallets. The Solana smartphone will be powered by a Qualcomm chipset sporting an Arm-based SoC, allowing for higher productivity.

Cointelegraph’s ground team managed to bring in a sneakpeak of the soon-to-be-launched Solana smartphone.

Solana dApp store: A promise of crypto-friendly policies

Gearing up for the Web3 disruption, Solana announced the launch of the Solana dApp Store. During the conference, a Solana spokesperson highlighted the need for a good user experience in Web3.

Supporting the cause, Solana’s dApp store promises to do away with charges, revenues and fees. Moreover, the company confirmed with the interested participants that submissions would open january 2023.

Google Cloud is soon to become a Solana node validator

While the above announcements mark a series of milestones for Solana, the ecosystem’s partnership with Google Cloud evidently stole the limelight.

Based on the information collected by Cointelegraph’s ground team, Google Cloud is building a block-producing Solana validator to participate in and validate the network.

Google Cloud’s Blockchain Node Engine, which was first announced on Oct. 27, will feature on Solana chain from 2023. The integration will allow users to launch a dedicated Solana node in the Cloud.

Additionally, Google Cloud will index Solana data and bring it to BigQuery — a fully-managed, serverless data warehouse — by next year, making it easier for the Solana developers to access historical data.

On Oct. 11, Solana (SOL) users were attacked by hackers via a fake Solana wallet security update.

Hackers were found airdropping NFTs to users masquerading as a new Phantom wallet security update. However, the fraudulent update was a malware designed to steal crypto assets.

Users falling for the fake Phantom update hack saw malware being downloaded from GitHub, which attempts to steal browser information, history, cookies, passwords, SSH keys and other user information.

Samsung uses blockchain-based security for devices in its network

October 13, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Samsung’s Knox Matrix uses blockchain technology backing to increase security for all personal smart devices of a user connected to the network.

Tech giant Samsung announced it will utilize blockchain technology to upgrade security protocols for all of its smart devices.

Knox Matrix is its new blockchain-based security solution for “cross-device experiences.” This means the security layer covers all Samsung devices, from smartphones to home appliances, within the network.

Samsung says Knox Matrix will work as an individual's “own private blockchain system,” with all of one’s interconnected devices equipped with the blockchain multi-layered monitoring. This includes electronics such as smartphones but also smart TVs and air conditioners.

The new security upgrade is intended to protect users from exploits of their credentials, while simultaneously making logins more simple.

According to the announcement, all Samsung devices will utilize Knox Matrix and receive a unified SDK, whether they are based on Android, Tizen or another OS.

This comes alongside the company's announcement of its new collaboration with Google to improve multi-smart device experiences in the home.

Samsung Electronics Announces Expanded Partnership With Google To Elevate Smart Home Experienceshttps://t.co/D50NmDtp0v
— Samsung Electronics (@Samsung) October 12, 2022

Samsung has been active in expanding its footprint in the Web3 space.

A blog post from Blockdata on Aug. 16 revealed the company has the most active investor in blockchain-related ventures since September 2021. According to the post, Samsung participated in 13 funding rounds within the industry after a nine-month period.

It has recently backed an upcoming Web3 gaming studio, along with Samsung’s Asset Management division launching a blockchain exchange-traded fund in Hong Kong.

The managing director of Samsung Next also spoke out on the importance of building and investing in the Web3 space at this time.

Can Solana Bring 1,000,000,000 More Users to Crypto? Anatoly Yakovenko Explains Goal Behind New Mobile Phone

July 13, 2022 The Daily Hodl

White hat hacker attempts to recover ‘millions’ in lost Bitcoin, finds only $105

June 24, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin

“We didn’t make money, but we definitely made new friends," said Lavar Sanders, who originally purchased the Bitcoin in 2016.

Joe Grand, a computer engineer and hardware hacker known by many for recovering crypto from hard-to-reach places, spent hours breaking into a phone only to find a fraction of a Bitcoin.

In a YouTube video released on Thursday, Grand traveled from Portland to Seattle in an effort to potentially recover “millions of dollars” in Bitcoin (BTC) from a Samsung Galaxy SIII phone owned by Lavar Sanders, a local bus operator. Sanders originally purchased the BTC in July 2016 in a “super sketchy” way, paying a person at a cafe and storing the crypto in a wallet on the phone before putting it in storage and losing track of the device.

After finding the phone in 2021, Sanders couldn’t recall the swipe password, but remembered setting up the option of erasing the data if too many incorrect attempts were made. He and a friend connected with Grand after discovering his YouTube videos, allowing the white hat hacker to make several attempts to get into the phone’s memory and recover the crypto.

Following some micro soldering, downloading the memory and discovering the Samsung’s swipe pattern for access — which turned out to be the letter “L” — Sanders opened his MyCelium Bitcoin wallet and discovered only 0.00300861 BTC — worth $105 USD at the time, down to roughly $63 USD at the time of publication. Grand was later able to determine the bus operator purchased $400 worth of BTC in 2016, most of which went to a crypto mixing service called BitBlender, which was shut down in 2019.

“I’m a little devastated,” said Sanders. “We didn’t make money, but we definitely made new friends.”

Many crypto users have been locked out of their wallets or otherwise lost access to physical devices holding BTC over the years — one of the most famous examples being a Welsh man who in 2013 threw out a hard drive containing 7,500 Bitcoins, now worth more than $150 million. However, many hackers and engineers specializing in crypto recovery services have appeared in response.

Smartphone

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