T Store, a mobile application marketplace operated by SKT, the largest telecommunications giant in South Korea, officially introduced Samsung Blockchain Keystore and the revolutionary native crypto wallet on the Galaxy S10.

The photograph of the of the Samsung Blockchain Keystore and crypto wallet released by T Store showed a section called “Token Transfers” under the platform’s Ethereum wallet, featuring ERC20 tokens like Basic Attention Token (BAT) and Enjin Coin.

Following the launch of the Galaxy S10 in San Francisco, local publications in South Korea reported that Samsung is expected to integrate a full ERC20 support into its crypto wallet.

Samsung’s Crypto Platform Will Feature Robust Ethereum Wallet

On February 22, immediately after the official introduction of the Galaxy S10 and Fold by Samsung Electronics, Hankyoreh, a mainstream media outlet in South Korea, reported that the company is likely to feature an ERC20-compatible system alongside more conventional assets like Bitcoin – and Ethereum itself.

“Based on the fact that the Samsung Blockchain Keystore tutorial features Bitcoin, Ethereum, and an add new token button, it is likely that Samsung will allow users to directly add ERC20 tokens onto the native crypto wallet,” the publication reported.

The ERC20 token standard is a set of rules an Ethereum token contract has to implement to launch a cryptocurrency on top of the Ethereum blockchain network.

For a blockchain project or token, being fully compliant with the ERC20 token standard increases its accessibility, as users can utilize the token with the same infrastructure that supports Ethereum.

Samsung is said to have integrated a full ERC20 wallet because it believes the potential of blockchain technology exceeds the realm of payments.

In the Samsung Blockchain Keystore tutorial, the company said that blockchain technology can be used in a variety of sectors including insurance, banking, and e-commerce.

The company does not see the blockchain as a technology solely for payments; rather, Samsung considers the blockchain as a decentralized data processing network that eventually will open up to a wide range of applications.

The official Blockchain Keystore tutorial read:

“The blockchain is a new method that enables every user to store and process data in a decentralized ecosystem, and it is used in many areas. [Such areas include] secure distribution information confirmation, insurance and contract verification, copyrights management, content distribution, game items storage, crypto assets storage, and cryptocurrency transactions.”

Based on the forward-thinking approach of Samsung in implementing blockchain and cryptocurrency support, industry executives in the cryptocurrency sector of South Korea foresee the company engaging with crypto more aggressively in the long-term.

Previously, an industry executive told CCN.com that Samsung has been playing down its cryptocurrency wallet integration because a relatively large portion of the mainstream user base of mobile phones is resistant to terms like “Bitcoin” and “cryptocurrency.”

Still, as the awareness of cryptocurrencies continues to grow, one cryptocurrency analyst stated that the impact Samsung’s crypto integration could have on the asset class is much bigger than others like the highly anticipated Bakkt Bitcoin futures market launch overseen by ICE, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange.

The analyst said:

“Twitter has 326 million active monthly users. Samsung shipped 70 million units In Q4 2018 alone. Tippin.me and the new Galaxy smartphones will do more for bitcoin adoption than Bakkt and all the ETF’s in the pipeline combined.”

Will Samsung Pay Help Power Bitcoin Adoption?

Earlier this month, several local publications reported that Samsung Pay, the company’s flagship digital payments app, could be involved in the integration of the Galaxy S10’s native cryptocurrency wallet.

So far, there are no reports on the connection of the Galaxy S10’s Blockchain Keystore and Samsung Pay, making the direct integration of Bitcoin and other digital assets on the widely utilized payment application highly unlikely – for now.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Image from REUTERS / Henry Nicholls