Entrepreneurs, developers, and investors within the cryptocurrency space have been waiting for years for the moment that cryptocurrency will truly be adopted for usage on a large scale. There has been much speculation about what could cause this adoption to happen–some have even predicted that an inevitable global financial crisis will be what truly brings crypto into the “mainstream.”
However, even those who predict such a doomsday for the world of finance as we know it can acknowledge that in the meantime, the thing that’s really going to drive cryptocurrency adoption is accessibility. As crypto platforms become increasingly user-friendly and available, more and more people come into the cryptosphere to stay.
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Therefore, the launch of Samsung’s newest smartphone, the Galaxy S10, has caused quite a bit of excitement within the cryptocurrency industry. Some believe that the phone, which will come equipped with a built-in “cold” (offline) cryptocurrency wallet, is the thing that will finally bring crypto to the masses.
But what could the launch of the phone actually mean for cryptocurrency adoption? And is Samsung leading the charge in a mobile crypto wallet revolution?
Here’s What We Know
Images of the leaked Galaxy S10 originally emerged on Twitter in January. The pictures, posted by Twitter tipster Gregory Blake, showed the phone displaying what appeared to be a cryptocurrency wallet interface.
Galaxy s10 with crypto wallet? pic.twitter.com/6IICujXEnm
— Gregory Blake (@GregiPfister89) January 22, 2019
eToro analyst Mati Greenspan also sees the potential boost that cryptocurrency adoption will receive from the creation of the integrated hardware wallet. “The new added feature built into Samsung’s S10 is certainly noteworthy and is yet another sign that more people and companies are taking crypto and blockchain seriously,” he said.
Kyle Asman, partner at BX3 capital, shared Greenspan’s sentiments. “This is definitely a big step in the right direction for mainstream adoption,” he told Finance Magnates. “You now have one of the largest tech companies in the world working to accommodate cryptocurrency.”
Indeed, “Samsung is one of the Mobile giants with 893 million active devices all over the world and a market share of 27%, even beating Apple,” said Nuno Correia, CEO of UTRUST, to Finance Magnates. “It not only validates the beliefs in blockchain technology but as well opens the door to new users that might have to see the technology as not legit and now see it as validated.”
Are Other Major Tech Companies Likely to Follow Suit?
Will other major smartphone manufacturers follow suit? Opinions within the industry are mixed. Some say that Samsung’s public embrace of cryptocurrency is a nothing more than a PR stunt, but others see signs of the future.
For Nuno Correia, “it’s not a question of ‘will’ but ‘when,’” adding that he believes that Apple is likely to start offering cryptocurrency storage products as well. “We will see huge competition in the next years between mobile tech providers in regards to blockchain.”
Anatoliy Knyazev, Executive Director and Co-founder of investment firm EXANTE, disagrees. “I doubt more manufacturers will follow suit, unless Google decides to support this feature natively in the Android OS in the next release,” he told Finance Magnates. “I would give even fewer chances of Apple playing with [the idea].”
The Race to Capture the Crypto Market Has Already Begun
However, it’s possible that crypto-integrated devices will continue to gain popularity with or without the immediate participation of the tech world’s most important players.
Indeed, founder of Trezor, Head of Strategy at Casa, and cryptocurrency security expert Alena Vranova told Finance Magnates in an exclusive interview that it’s likely that cryptocurrency wallet-integrated products such as smartphones, laptops, and watches are will appear on the market with greater frequency over the next several years and that much of the push will come from cryptocurrency wallet manufacturers themselves.
“We will probably see more attempts to go to bluetooth…more hardware wallets embedded into other devices,” she explained.
Indeed, most of the cryptocurrency wallet-integrated devices that are available today have been created and released by lesser-known tech companies who have attempted to gain the attention of the cryptocurrency niche.
Taiwanese consumer electronics company HTC announced the release of the ‘Exodus,’ its own blockchain-enabled smartphone, in October of last year. Two months later, Sirin Labs released the ‘Finney,’ its own blockchain smartphone.
To be sure, there has been plenty of excitement around these phones. The Finney ICO raised $100 million in under 24 hours.
However, it may be so that Samsung’s new crypto-integrated smartphone could knock smaller players straight out of the water. All three products are available for around the same price – somewhere between $750 and $1000 – and the S10 is by far the most reputable and the most widely available.
Michael Ou, CEO of CoolBitX, told Finance Magnates that smaller players might have to lower their prices if they want to be able to compete with major manufacturers. “Unfortunately, the high price point of crypto phones (such as the HTC Exodus 1) serves as an additional barrier to entry, as those unfamiliar with the industry are unlikely to purchase these types of devices,” he explained.
In any case, the race to corner the crypto market is on and Samsung may just be the winner.
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