Over the past few weeks, there were speculations that Samsung might include a built-in hardware cryptocurrency wallet on their gen-next flagship smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S10, which is expected to come out early next year. However, the company has cleared the air by refuting this to be a rumour.
The rumour started off when three patents filed by Samsung came to light. Samsung had filed three patents which talked about a patenting a cryptocurrency and blockchain based software, as reported by a Sammobile, a website that tracks Samsung-related news stories. This led to the rumours that Samsung might be planning to include a built-in cryptocurrency wallet in the Samsung Galaxy S10. When asked by Cointelegraph if these were the plans for the upcoming flagship device, Samsung replied with the following statement:
“Unfortunately we are unable to provide any information as the below is rumour and speculation.”
The three trademarks that Samsung had filed with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) are named ‘Blockchain KeyStore’, ‘Blockchain Key Box’ and ‘Blockchain Core’. What added to the speculation was the fact that all these three trademarks were filed under the category of “Smartphones; Software applications for use with mobile devices; Computer software platforms; Application.”
Sammobile, in their report, had confirmed that these trademarks were to be used in a Samsung-developed cryptocurrency hardware wallet. However, they said that these “might” be a part of the Samsung Galaxy S10. This leads to two more speculations:
- One can speculate that the company might release a special Blockchain variant of the Samsung Galaxy S10, which may offer this feature. This would be a better option for the firm considering that a large number of their users may not be interested in a cryptocurrency-related feature.
- The other speculation is that Samsung may even release a special blockchain-focused smartphone, similar to what firms such as HTC and Sirin Labs have been doing in the recent times. This would be a device focused specifically for those who are interested in cryptocurrency/blockchain technology.
While blockchain-based smartphones are a very new concept, only two mainstream devices exist in the markets as of now. The first being HTC’s Exodus 1 smartphone - which comes out with a built-in cryptocurrency wallet, perhaps this is where Samsung may have been inspired from, if at all they plan to launch such a device later. The other one is Sirin Labs’ Blockchain-based ‘Finney’ smartphone. Both these devices, however, cater to a very niche audience - which Samsung isn’t usually known for doing.
Interestingly, this is not the first time that Samsung has been associated with the cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies. In the past, the firm was involved in a partnership with Halong Miner - where they would develop chips which would help mine for cryptocurrencies. Moreover, Samsung also developed their own blockchain platform in June, named NexFinance. It would be interesting to see if Samsung does release a blockchain-focused smartphone in the future.
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