The new Samsung S20 was announced on February 11 with little attention paid to its crypto support abilities. This new phone comes with some great features including 5G support, advanced cameras, and crypto storage capabilities. Marketing of the phones crypto features shifted drastically compared to Galaxy S10 release.
Earlier Galaxy S10 With Crypto Support
When the Galaxy S10 range of phones were revealed, Samsung publicized its crypto support a great deal. At the time, the company put a lot of emphasis on its blockchain Keystore, announcing support for a wide range of coins and apps. Eventually, the company even added support for Bitcoin. In this launch of their flagship phone, the company barely mentioned the blockchain and crypto support.
Support for crypto was only mentioned on its site. According to the official announcement, the phone will come with a secure processor that will be dedicated to the protection of your PIN, pattern, password, and Blockchain Private Key. However, no further details are provided about the phone’s crypto capabilities. For instance, the company has not revealed how many crypto-related apps will be supported on the phone.
However, it is safe to assume it will support at least what the S10 phones supported.in the S10, Samsung created an enclave where users could store private keys securely. These keys were supported in the Knox security platform that was created by Samsung. This platform is connected to the Keystore app that was created by the company, which users can use to view the crypto balance and send money. Since the S20 will continue to support Knox, it is safe to assume this support will be retained.
It is worth noting that the same limited support for certain regions might be retained. During the release of the S10, the company announced that crypto support would only be offered in Spain, South Korea, Canada, Germany, the US, the UK, and Switzerland. At the time, the company announced that it would offer the service to more regions in the future. There were even rumors that the South Korea tech giant might expand its crypto offering to include a proprietary crypto-token in the future.
Crypto Phone Support – Not A Selling Point?
While Samsung will still offer crypto support, they are not using it as a major selling point. One reason for this might be that the crypto market is not as large as they had hoped. For instance, while they have sold millions of devices from their S10 lineup, they have never revealed how many users have accessed the blockchain and crypto features in those phones.
It might be safe to assume that the numbers do not justify hyping crypto compatibility that much. Despite this, crypto enthusiasts looking to buy a new phone this year might opt for a Samsung due to the crypto support. One of Samsung’s biggest competitors in the phone market does not offer such a feature. However, users of Apple and other brands can still install a crypto wallet app on their devices.
Crypto Cold Storage
Crypto cold storage options have grown during market maturity. Many cryptocurrency investors still prefer keeping their investment holdings off-line. If Galaxy S10 struggled to penetrate the market with crypto support, this could very well be one trigger. Despite the phone offering protection over private keys, the average investor in crypto still doesn’t understand the implications of private keys. Instead, the average user in crypto would associate loosing their phone with loosing their digital assets.
Image Source: Pixabay
Notice: Information contained herein is not and should not be construed as an offer, solicitation, or recommendation to buy or sell securities. The information has been obtained from sources we believe to be reliable; however no guarantee is made or implied with respect to its accuracy, timeliness, or completeness. Authors may own the crypto currency they discuss. The information and content are subject to change without notice. Visionary Financial and its affiliates do not provide investment, tax, legal or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only and is the opinion of the author, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, investment, tax, legal, accounting advice. You should consult your own investment, tax, legal and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction. All content published by Visionary Financial is not an endorsement whatsoever. Visionary Financial was not compensated to submit this article Please also visit our Privacy policy; disclaimer; and terms and conditions page for further information.
