Blockchain-based Mobile Services Available on Galaxy S10

Samsung Electronics' introduction of a blockchain wallet in the Galaxy S10 smartphone is expected to accelerate popularization of cryptocurrency payment and remittance services.

Starting with the Galaxy S10 released this year, Samsung Electronics Co. has begun to introduce its own blockchain wallet in the Galaxy series. Samsung’s move is fueling expectations that cryptocurrency payment and remittance services will be popularized. Moreover, the popularization of services like “COSMEE,” a blockchain-based beauty social media platform, is expected to pick up speed through “Samsung Blockchain Keystore,” which enables users to safely keep a “private key” that is required to use blockchain-based mobile services, or decentralized applications (DApps).

Samsung Electronics introduced a total of four services, including Coinduck, COSMEE, Enjin Coin and CryptoKitties, via a Galaxy S10 software update on March 8.

As the Ethereum-based payment service of Coinduck, a cryptocurrency payment service subsidiary of Chain Partners, has been installed on the Galaxy S10, users of the smartphone are now able to pay with cryptocurrencies at online and offline stores partnered with Coinduck. Coinduck commercialized “Coinduck Payment” in January 2018, allowing users to make a payment with Ethereum at offline stores for the first time in the world. The company currently has 1,000 affiliate members in Korea. The figure is larger than that of “Crypto Valley” in Zug, Switzerland.

CryptoKitties, an Ethereum-based collectible game, and Enjin Coin, a blockchain-based game project, have also become the first partners of the Galaxy S10. Previously, Samsung Electronics announced technological partnership with Blue Whale Foundation, a global sharing economy platform, to expand the indie game ecosystem. In addition, the company is focusing on expanding game services which are considered to be killer services in the blockchain sector.

With Cosmochain, which operates COSMEE, Samsung Electronics is expected to revitalize the token economy ecosystem, which is a cryptocurrency reward system based on the blockchain technology. This is because the Galaxy S10 not only supports Ethereum but also a host of other ERC20 tokens issued by Ethereum.


Chang Sung-hoon, CEO of Rootone Soft, which operates cryptocurrency wallet “Bitberry,” said, “It is a very positive sign for the related industry that a global conglomerate, such as Samsung, has taken concrete action in blockchain. The number of actual cryptocurrency use cases will not significantly increase with Samsung Blockchain Keystore alone but the blockchain ecosystem can be expanded further if the company cooperates with services that connect businesses with users such as Bitberry.”


Some market experts say Samsung Electronics may be seeking for a “game changer” in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry by forming various DApp ecosystems based on “Galaxy Store,” which integrates “Google Play Store” and its separate “Galaxy Apps” and “Gear Store.” It is part of a strategy not to repeat the same mistake that the company made before. Samsung Electronics had let Google and Apple dominate the operating system (OS) and app store sectors, respectively, though it made its smartphones global products in the mobile industry.

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