If you want to get your hands on the newly launched HTC Exodus 1 blockchain phone, you’ll need to buy it for cryptocurrency.

The phone, released by HTC Inc. today, can be preordered with bitcoin or Ethereum. It is available in 34 countries today, including the U.S., U.K., Hong Kong and Singapore. The purchase price is 0.15 BTC or 4.78 ETH, which comes out to approximately $960.

Announced in May by Phil Chen, decentralized chief officer at HTC, the Exodus 1 runs on an Android-based OS that supports a “secure enclave” that can protect digital currencies. This unique attribute of the phone means that it can act as safe storage for cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin and Ethereum — even, for example, tokens such as those that power the ever-popular CryptoKitties or cards from the game Spells of Genesis.

“It’s been both 10 years since the launch of the first Android phone by HTC and nearly 10 years since the launch of bitcoin and the Genesis Block,” Chen said, referring to the beginning of the bitcoin blockchain. “Exodus 1 is a foundational element of the crypto internet.”

Blockchain technology makes use of shared and decentralized cryptographically secured ledgers to record the ownership of digital tokens and transactions that move them from owner to owner. Since these transactions depend on cryptographic keys and access to those keys gives access to the tokens, the security of those keys becomes tantamount to putting a lock on a safe with physical money in it.

“For digital assets and decentralized apps to reach their potential, we believe mobile will need to be the main point of distribution,” Chen said. As a result, the built-in secure enclave in the Exodus 1 protects extremely sensitive information related to blockchain assets. That allows the Exodus 1 to be a mobile safe.

As an extra precaution, the Exodus 1 includes a mechanism to allow users to securely recover lost keys should the phone be misplaced or stolen. As a result, all users retain full custody of their cryptographic assets even if they lose access to their phone. That can also be extremely important because keeping cryptocurrency on a phone means that if that phone is stolen, that digital money can also be stolen.

As a phone, the Exodus 1 is also a powerful, sleek device that sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chip and runs on Android Oreo. Its display is a six-inch quad high-definition display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. It also has two cameras, with 16 megapixels in front and 8 megapixels in back.

With an eye to developers, HTC will soon release a software development kit and application programming interface for working with the key management system and the secure wallet. Since the phone is still in early release and only available for preorder, interested developers will need to contact HTC for access.

“Through the Exodus, we are also excited to be supporting underlying protocols such as Bitcoin, Lightning Networks, Ethereum, Dfinity and more,” Chen said about the May unveiling of the phone. “We would like to support the entire blockchain ecosystem, and in the next few months we’ll be announcing many more exciting partnerships together.”

The phone is expected to ship in December.

Image: HTC