This past December, Samsung, the South Korean mobile phone manufacturing giant competing with Apple, announced they will be launching a blockchain smartphone.
Now, just one month later, a Samsung Galaxy S10 leak has revealed pictures of the phone, showing that it will be supporting blockchain technology and a cryptocurrency wallet. The leak was provided by concept designer, Ben Geskin on Twitter.
New #GalaxyS10 live images leak with ‘Samsung Blockchain KeyStore’
(images via @GregiPfister89) pic.twitter.com/g0FipTooe6
— Ben Geskin (@VenyaGeskin1) January 23, 2019
Galaxy S10 Features and Stats
Samsung’s Galaxy S10 is set to be unveiled on February 20, 2019, and it is expected that sales of the phone will begin sometime in March. Since the phone has yet to be officially unveiled, not all features are known, but there has been a great deal of speculation.
For instance, due to the leaked pictures, tech analysts speculate that the phone has a converted height-to-width ratio of 2,283 pixels by 1,080 pixels, and features 2 front-facing cameras. It’s also speculated that the Samsung Galaxy S10 features a 6.1-inch curved OLED display and an in-display fingerprint scanner.
As for processing power and memory storage, it’s speculated that the phone will feature the Exynos 9820 processor (global) and the Snapdragon 855 for North America. As for memory, it’s likely to range from 128GB to 512GB of internal storage.
Samsung Blockchain Wallet
The feature that’s piqued crypto enthusiasts’ attention is the new Samsung Blockchain KeyStore that appears to be a blockchain wallet for cryptocurrencies. The wallet will allow users to create a new wallet from scratch or import an existing wallet to transfer funds.
Therefore, users will have full control over their private keys and crypto funds. Moreover, the system works on the blockchain with whatever cryptocurrencies Samsung decides to support. From the leaked pictures, it’s evident that the wallet supports Ethereum (ETH), but it doesn’t show any other cryptos.
However, Bitcoin (BTC) is the #1 cryptocurrency, and is even shown in the leaked pictures going into the Samsung blockchain wallet. Also, reports by SamMobile reveal that the blockchain wallet is expected to support Bitcoin (BTC) as well as Ethereum-based ERC20 tokens at launch.
Furthermore, it is highly speculated that Samsung’s blockchain wallet will be a cold wallet and Samsung won’t have access to any of the data in the Blockchain KeyStore app.
Users will only be able to recover their wallet with the 12 to 24-word recovery phrase. and can enable second-layer security solutions when accessing the wallet with a PIN and fingerprint. Also, when setting up the wallet’s private key, the phone will require fingerprint and PIN authentication to provide security and safety.
Not The First Blockchain Phone
Samsung’s Galaxy S10 is not the first phone to integrate blockchain technology for the storage of cryptocurrency. 2 other smartphone manufacturers — HTC and Siren Labs — have already released blockchain phones.
Siren Labs was the first to release a blockchain phone that utilizes blockchain technology at its core, enabling users the secure use of blockchain products, such as decentralized applications (dapps). As well, users can safely and securely store and transact various cryptocurrencies through the phone’s cold wallet.
HTC’s blockchain phone is called the HTC Exodus and supports underlying protocols, including Bitcoin, Lightning Network, Ethereum, Dfinity, and more. It allows users to run dapps on their phone and comes with interesting blockchain functions such as “social key recovery.”
All in all, it’s no question that blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are beginning to go mainstream. Samsung is a major smartphone manufacturer that will enable millions of consumer to safely, securely, and conveniently store cryptocurrencies directly on their mobile device.
With developments like these, the future is looking very bright for cryptocurrencies.
Do you think the Samsung Galaxy S10 will support decentralized applications in addition to their cryptocurrency wallet? What other unique features might they reveal? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
