South Korean tech giant Samsung has recently hosted its Unpacked event in San Francisco, introducing the world to its new flagship model Galaxy S10, which appears to include blockchain tutorials for its built-in crypto key storage solution.
The cryptocurrency community has been expecting the flagship model to feature a built-in cryptocurrency wallet, as leaked images appeared to show an image of it, and made it seem it would support Ethereum, and presumably ERC-20 tokens. The tech giant had late last year filed a trademark application for a cryptocurrency wallet software.
During Unpacked, however, no mention of a built-in cryptocurrency wallet was made. In a press release posted soon after, Samsung noted it includes a line on housing private keys for “blockchain-enabled” mobile services. The document reads:
Galaxy S10 is built with defense-grade Samsung Knox, as well as a secure storage backed by hardware, which houses your private keys for blockchain-enabled mobile services.
While Samsung stopped short of calling it a cryptocurrency wallet, the company made it clear users would be able to store their private keys securely using the smartphone’s hardware. This, however, didn’t imply it would have a friendly user interface for users to interact with blockchain applications, or send and receive cryptocurrency.
In a recently shared video Twitter user Heslin Kim revealed the Galaxy S10 does include a built-in cryptocurrency wallet, along with what appear to be “blockchain tutorials” guiding users through it.
🇰🇷 – Samsung now priming their phones with Blockchain tutorials. The wallet integration on the Galaxy S10 has been confirmed… even after they denied it. Trying to keep Apple on their toes? pic.twitter.com/wAd7EaPzKw
— Korean Cryptocurrency & Blockchain News (@BlockchainROK) February 21, 2019
Various cryptocurrency users believe Samsung adding the crypto key storage is bullish, as it’ll expose millions of users to the cryptocurrency space. The smartphone’s crypto key storage appears to let users store both bitcoin and ether.
Why the tech giant stopped short of calling it a cryptocurrency wallet is unclear, although some believe it was trying not to scare away its core audience.
This, as the crypto market’s over 85% decline from 2017 highs, as well as recent events involving millions getting lost because QuadrigaCX’s CEO passed away, could be a turn off for various Samsung users.
