dGEN1: Half Phone, Half "Start Trek Communicator", 100% Ethereum

"Technology used to be fun, used to have character, used to give us hope. Things changed. Let's take our future back."

The cryptic cry for change is how the upcoming mobile device firm Freedom Factory announced the pre-sale of dGEN1 - a new type of device that functions somewhat like a phone but is also very, very different.

dGEN1 is an "everyday carry device" that allows users to do everything a normal phone does but in a different, decentralized, open-sourced, meme-induced parallel world—the Ethereum ecosystem.

Users can manage their crypto, use DeFi apps, play games, and use all Ethereum-based social media.

The device itself has two screens, a speaker, a terminal for viewing transaction states, a matrix that can be 100% programmed to do all manor of cool stuff, and a laser.

Yes, it has a laser.

One of the founders explained: "We want to be the device a kid would pick off the table when they see a group of phones just lying there. It should feel the coolest. Everyone should want to use it."

An EthOS4-Powered Device

On the inside, the team's main concern was to build a device where "experience is not infringed upon." Normal phones force users to leave one app to perform transactions, making using Web3 Dapps and crypto payments cumbersome.

With dGEN1, there is no break in the experience.

It has a native wallet, a light node, and a crypto messenger. Most importantly, it runs on EthOS4, the latest iteration of an operating system that directly integrates with the Ethereum ecosystem for all its features.

Freedom Factory has been developing EthOS for the past three years. It is Ethereum's first mobile OS, and in August last year, the company launched its first phone with the system incorporated.

dGEN1 is a step up. The team is aware that only degens will be interested in a portable device that handles exclusively crypto transactions. However, it perfectly aligns with their plan to "earn the way to the front pocket" of a future generation of Web3 users who regularly do multiple crypto transactions.

"You are not going to carry a device to use crypto all the time unless you are someone who makes many transactions a day. But we want to enable the next wave of Web3 of crypto where you can make a bunch of transactions every day."

Price, Referrals, And Airdrops

At 0.2 ETH (around $530), the dGEN1 device is only slightly more expensive than the  $450 Android-based Solana Seeker phone unveiled last month.

Potential buyers, however, can easily obtain a 5% discount with a referral code from friends or from one of the several meme-coin communities that have been showing their excitement for dGEN1 on social media since the product's pre-launch was announced yesterday.

Airdrops, which Freedom Factory architected in a novel and exciting way, further reduce the cost of purchasing an "everyday carry."

The pool of airdrops can be funded by other Web3 projects until the pre-order ends, after which it is divided equally by all those who pre-order dGEN1. In the past 24 hours, the pool value has gone from 0 to $14 thousand, which translates to $14 per buyer.