The Bob is a modular blockchain phone that you assemble yourself

There’s a new blockchain phone in town, and it’s a lot more... ambitious than HTC’s Exodus phone. A company named Pundi X will debut the Bob on Indiegogo on Tuesday, a modular smartphone with a boatload of blockchain dreams.

What it is — Right away you can tell this phone is wild. You receive it in pieces and assemble it yourself, like a Gundam figurine. The specs aren’t great but they're not terrible: it’s got a Snapdragon 660, 6GB of RAM, and a 48MP main camera. But that’s not the point: this phone looks insane in a great way, and I can’t stress this enough, it comes in a box and you assemble it yourself.

Who this is for — Once you have it all together and powered on, you’ll find a customized version of Android with a collection of decentralized blockchain apps. Yes, it does come with a wallet and some of the company’s digital currency, but my impression from the demo was that this phone phone isn’t primarily aimed at Blockchain finance people. Rather, it’s aimed at people who want a more private, decentralized smartphone experience. The rep was eager to show me a new blockchain web web protocol called FXTP, which supposedly allows for node-to-node data transfer outside of the regular web. The phone is apparently also a node.

Let’s be honest: the world of blockchain is full of tall tales and big promises, so I would wait to see if Pundi X’s decentralized vision truly comes to fruition. That said, I am extremely excited about a phone that you have to assemble yourself and looks like a prop from Evangelion.