There have been a number of stories floating around recently about chip giant Samsung and its foray into cryptocurrency. Specifically, the reports say that the South Korean tech giant will add crypto cold storage to its next generation of smartphones.
SamMobile, one of the largest online communities dedicated to Samsung, ran an “exclusive” claiming that the tech giant has plans to integrate crypto software with its next Galaxy S10 smartphone. Adnan Farooqui, the senior executive editor at SamMobile, was quoted as saying that “after hearing about the trademarks for Samsung’s blockchain and cryptocurrency software, we decided to dig around a little deeper. We can confirm that the company is indeed developing one and that it may be launched with the Galaxy S10.”
According to the article, the crypto services will be in two parts. A cold wallet for saving and storing cryptocurrency will be in the first part. A crypto wallet for transfers, viewing account information and transaction history will be in the second.
The cold wallet app will enable users to transfer existing wallets from other providers while they can also set up new wallets using the software. According to the report, it may initially support Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and other ERC20 Ethereum-based coins.
South Korea’s largest conglomerate has its fingers in many pies including insurance, online payments, asset management, car manufacturing, electronics, and property development. It also seems to now have ambitions towards cryptocurrencies, despite this year’s market meltdown. Samsung has reportedly delved into crypto previously with a Bitcoin mining hardware venture at its large-scale foundry.
The rumored crypto integration into the Galaxy phone has yet to be officially confirmed, however, and according to Cointelegraph, the tech giant dismissed the report as speculation. “Unfortunately we are unable to provide any information as the below is rumor and speculation,” it reportedly told the publication.
What does seem to be fact is that Samsung recently filed three EU trademarks for blockchain and cryptocurrency software, which are all related to crypto storage and security. They have been filed under the “Smartphones; Software applications for use with mobile devices; Computer software platforms; Application,” category and named ‘Blockchain KeyStore’, ‘Blockchain key box’, and ‘Blockchain Core’ categories.
Rival phone-maker HTC announced its blockchain smartphone back in May and this week it was revealed that it will use the Brave crypto browser on its new HTC Exodus 1. A Samsung crypto phone should not be far behind.