Creator of the Finney blockchain smartphone, Sirin Labs, has announced a partnership with cryptocurrency interface MyEtherWallet (MEW) to offer mutually beneficial features for Finney.

Their integration of services will see MEW being used as Finney’s cold storage wallet, while Finney will act as a hardware wallet for MEW users. MEW users will also be able to easily buy Finney phones online or through mobile platforms. Finney itself will handle conversion of supported coins as needed by users.

Both firms confirmed the collaboration via individual tweets on the same day (Mar 21). Sirin and MEW see this partnership as a way to drive adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchain, making it more convenient for users to access Ethereum and handle their private keys.

Finney runs on a modified version of Android, called SirinOS, and is supported by Sirin’s SRN token. Its design is geared toward supporting blockchain applications. Other than crypto wallet functions, it is also meant to support features such as crypto exchange access, three-factor authentication, and encrypted ‎communications. Back in 2017, football star Lionel Messi was signed on as Finney’s brand ambassador.

MEW founder and CEO Kosala Hemachandra said, “We’re always looking to bring more secure integrations to Ethereum to make our users feel safe while navigating the crypto waters, and we believe having an on-phone hardware wallet is immensely valuable to users. This will not only make it easy to send and receive crypto transactions, but it will also make crypto more accessible to a wide range of users.”

Zvika Landau, Sirin Labs’ CEO, also commented on the integration saying this is a “strong step” towards greater market share for both companies, as both products “complement each other”.

Smartphones are increasingly being enhanced with blockchain features. This month alone, The Crypto Sight reported that VaultTel is introducing a new mobile-based crypto wallet, while Electroneum has created a smartphone that mines crypto.  

But perhaps the biggest such recent news in the mobile phone industry has been that Samsung’s Galaxy S10 features a built-in crypto wallet.