Source: Samsung

South Korean tech giant Samsung just made major announcement that might give a strong boost to the cryptocurrency mass adoption. The company confirmed that its new flagship smartphone Galaxy S10 features "a secure storage backed by hardware, which houses your private keys for blockchain-enabled mobile services."

The company did not provide any further details about the storage yet.

As details are scarce, many are wondering what “hardware storage” the company announced and why it wasn’t mentioned during keynote presentations. Read more about it here.

Meanwhile, videos started to appear supposedly showing the Samsung Blockchain Wallet:

🇰🇷 - Samsung now priming their phones with Blockchain tutorials. The wallet integration on the Galaxy S10 has been confirmed... even after they denied it. Trying to keep Apple on their toes? pic.twitter.com/wAd7EaPzKw — Korean Cryptocurrency & Blockchain News (@BlockchainROK) February 21, 2019

Galaxy S10: Official Introduction

Preorders for the Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10+ and Galaxy S10e begins on February 21. Pricing starts at USD 899.99 for Galaxy S10, USD 999.99 for Galaxy S10+ and USD 749.99 for Galaxy S10e, according to the company.

Source: Twitter

Source: Samsung

As reported, in January, Samsung once again found itself in another round of claims that its new phone will feature a crypto wallet.

Supposedly leaked images that were published by concept designer Ben Geskin and several other known tech leakers on Twitter showed what appeared to be the new Samsung Galaxy S10 phone with a built-in crypto wallet called “Samsung Blockchain KeyStore.”

As South Korean blockchain consultant Kim Mi-ra previously told Cryptonews.com, “If Samsung phones do indeed come with cryptocurrency wallets pre-installed, it will change everything – it may open the floodgates for smartphone developers over the world, as well as many South Korean firms. Many of these companies are now chomping at the bit, waiting for a chance to integrate their businesses with cryptocurrency.”

Korean news outlets also speculated that Samsung may seek to integrate the wallet function with its Samsung Pay, a mobile payment and digital wallet service, operations.

Smartphone unit shipments of Samsung worldwide by quarter from 2010 to 2018 (in million units):

Source: statista.com

In December, the tech giant rejected claims that it plans to release a cold storage crypto vault on its Galaxy S10 phone, saying it is nothing but rumors. However, Samsung has previously filed three trademarks to be registered with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). It includes “Blockchain key box”, “Blockchain Core” and “Blockchain KeyStore”.

“Blockchain phones” have been a hot topic of discussion several times over the past months and years. Phones such as HTC's Exodus 1, Sirin Labs' Finney and Pundi X's XPhone have been announced in recent months. In addition, another South Korean electronics firm, LG is also reportedly working on a secret crypto project.

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Galaxy Unpacked 2019 live stream from San Francisco:

Some other specifics and features of the Galaxy S10 series: