Combining Phones with Blockchain Services.
An increasing number of smartphone manufacturers are combining their phones with blockchain services. Under the circumstances, blockchain services are expected to emerge as main services of mobile devices.
Early this year, Samsung Electronics equipped its flagship Galaxy S10 with the KeyStore as a personal cryptocurrency key storage. The company has recently released the KlaytnPhone, a Galaxy Note 10 loaded with Klaytn, the blockchain platform of Ground X, which is a subsidiary of Kakao. LG Electronics is preparing to follow suit.
In fact, HTC and Sirin Labs already released blockchain smartphones last year. Still, the phones lacked popular services for general consumers and failed to increase their public awareness. However, Samsung Electronics’ and LG Electronics’ participation in the market is likely to lead to popularization of smartphone-based blockchain services.
The Klaytn platform is currently available on the Galaxy Note 10 and the Galaxy Note 10 Plus, which debuted last month. The phones come with the KlaytnPhone Wallet, which is scheduled to allow storage and trading of multiple Klaytn-based cryptocurrencies such as KLAY from next month.
Also, the phones come with the Blockchain KeyStore that Samsung Electronics unveiled early this year so that users can store and manage their KLAYs in the KeyStore. This means they can make both a payment and a remittance with their Klaytn-based app even without a hardware wallet.
“The Klaytn Wallet and the Samsung Blockchain KeyStore are interlinked with each other and Klaytn-based blockchain apps can be supported by the KeyStore,” Kakao explained, adding, “The KeyStore, which supported only Ethereum-based blockchain services, recently added Klaytn and Bitcoin to its service list.”
LG Electronics, in the meantime, applied for the trademark of ThinkQ Wallet in the United States and South Korea in July this year. The wallet is expected to be incorporated into wearable devices, blockchain software platforms, mobile cryptocurrency wallets, mobile payment apps, etc.