Samsung Electronics is one of the companies that are positioning themselves to leverage growth in the rapidly growing cryptocurrency and blockchain industries.

There is no doubt that the future of money is digital, which opens up many possibilities. For example, a vast majority of people in the world, own smartphones, and so it makes sense that these devices will eventually become the avenue for digital payments. Samsung is one of the mobile tech companies that recognize this potential.

The South Korean tech giant launched the Samsung Blockchain wallet in 2019, which is now available on almost all of its Galaxy lineup of devices. More recently, this week, the company announced a partnership with popular crypto hardware wallet maker, Ledger Nano, enabling the integration of the Samsung Blockchain Wallet with hardware storage devices from Ledger Nano.

What does this mean for crypto enthusiasts?

Hot wallets are connected to the internet, such as the wallets available on crypto exchanges like Binance and Coinbase. However, major crypto hacking incidents on cryptocurrency exchanges in the past have resulted in the loss of cryptocurrencies worth billions. Cold wallets offer a more secure option because they are not connected to the internet, making them safer.

There has been a lot of debate about whether the Samsung Blockchain wallet is a hot or cold wallet. The fact that it exists locally on the user device gives it cold wallet characteristics. Still, it also has hot wallet characteristics since Samsung Galaxy devices can connect to the internet.  The local availability of cryptocurrencies via the Samsung Blockchain wallet makes it more secure than the wallets on exchanges. However, it is still not as safe as cold wallets such as those offered by Ledger Nano.

The recent Ledger Nano and Samsung partnership aims to help crypto holders achieve maximum security while also having the ability to quickly access their cryptocurrencies when the need arises. Users can import their cryptocurrencies from their secure Ledger Nano wallets to their Samsung Blockchain wallet, from which they can transact with ease.

“By providing support for hardware wallets we are providing our customers with not just enhanced convenience, but also an entirely new level of security,” stated Woong Ah Yoon, the head of blockchain at Samsung.

Mr Yoon noted that the company plans to add support for other cold storage wallets in the future. He also revealed that the Samsung Blockchain wallet adoption has been exponential and that it holds digital assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Samsung also recently integrated its blockchain wallet to the U.S-based crypto exchange, Gemini.

The flexibility and convenience that Samsung is offering by bringing support for Ledger Nano cold wallets make Samsung Galaxy devices more appealing to the rapidly growing crypto community. It currently supports Ethereum, Bitcoin, Tron, and ERC20 tokens. However, its value extends beyond just digital currencies. Samsung also rolled out a development kit that can be used to create decentralized applications.

Developers can use the dev kit to create payment apps that can be used to pay for goods and services by scanning a QR code.