At this year’s Unpacked event, Samsung revealed its newest flagship smartphone – the Galaxy S10. One of the things that got the entire cryptocurrency community’s attention was the fact that the device includes a dedicated secure storage function which is specifically designed for cryptocurrency private keys.
In an official press release which followed the announcement of the phone, the company shared a few details on the phone’s new feature and its security.
“Galaxy S10 is built with defense-grade Samsung Knox, as well as secure storage backed by hardware, which houses your private keys for blockchain-enabled mobile services.” – Reads the release.
Samsung Knox is Samsung’s guarantee of security. It’s a pre-built platform which supposedly consists of overlapping defense and security mechanisms which are specifically designated to provide protection against malware, intrusion, and malicious threats.
A few days following the official release of the phone, a company official spoke at the Samsung Mobile Business Summit in Barcelona.
The company’s representative shared that Samsung’s cryptocurrency hardware-backed storage solution will initially support Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Cosmo Coin (COSM), and Enjin Coin (ENJ). The representative also revealed that the device would support decentralized applications (DApps).
The community was quick to react to the news of Galaxy S10’s new cryptocurrency hardware-backed storage solution, with many pondering upon the implications it may have on the market.
Unfortunately, there’s not enough official information regarding the specifics about the crypto storage solution. While Samsung Knox is a second-layer platform which is supposedly separated from the phone’s main layer, there are a lot of variables that need clarification. For example, are the wallets’ private keys going to be encrypted with their devices’ passwords? If so, what Samsung’s offering isn’t exactly a Bitcoin custody solution but rather a mobile hot wallet, which should be treated as such.
In regards to how this will impact the market, we have yet to see, since the phones haven’t been rolled out yet. Of course, two things have to be outlined.
On the one hand, we have the undeniable fact that Samsung is 2018’s leader and the most popular smartphone brand, boasting over 893 million active devices, as well as a market share of 27 percent. Apple, on the other hand, had a market share of 24 percent. Of course, it’s important to outline that not all of these devices will support cryptocurrency storage. However, it’s also unquestionable that the addition of a feature of the kind does open the door for a lot of people and could, in theory, spark further adoption.
As many members of the community have already pointed out, though, just because Samsung’s offering a feature of the kind, it doesn’t mean that people will start using it. There are a lot of pre-set apps on any Android phone that people don’t really use.
The bottom line is that there’s a lot of water to flow under the bridge before we get to see whether Samsung’s new cryptocurrency hardware-backed storage solution will impact the market and the industry in general.
Of course, it’s always a positive thing to know that the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer has its sights set on the industry, in general.
