South Korean tech giant Samsung has added support for third-party cryptocurrency hardware wallets to its Galaxy smartphones. These wallets including the Ledger Nano S and Nano X.
According to an announcement the company published, its smartphones supporting the Samsung Blockchain Wallet – which is available on the Samsung Galaxy store – can now be linked with cryptocurrency hardware wallets designed specifically to keep users’ crypto assets secure.
Samsung started adding cryptocurrency support to its smartphones when it launched the Galaxy S10 device back in February 2019. Its support comes through the Samsung Blockchain Wallet, which currently supports BTC, ETH, TRX, ERC-20 tokens, and TRC-20 tokens.
It launched a software development kit to let third parties create decentralized applications, which the Samsung Blockchain Wallet supports. IT reportedly takes advantage of the “vault-like security” provided by Knox, a secure enclave on Samsung’s devices isolated from the rest of the operating system.
Samsung has also recently integrated U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, founded by the Winklevoss twins. Its support for hardware wallets is launching with Ledger Nano S and Nano X, but the company plans to expand its support to other cold-storage wallets.
Connecting a hardware wallet to Samsung’s wallet will allow holders to use their funds in decentralized applications, it seems, and to keep track of them even without connecting the device to the wallet.
According to CoinDesk, Samsung’s VP and head of blockchain Woong Ah Yoon revealed its Galaxy blockchain ecosystem monthly active users doubled over the past seven months, and the Samsung Blockchain Wallet holds hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crypto.
Rumors suggesting Samsung was launching support for cryptocurrencies on its devices have been circulating as far back as 2018 after the company filed for three trademark applications in the European Union for blockchain and cryptocurrency-related software.
(Photo : TechBlogs)
