Samsung’s embrace of digital currencies grows

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South Korea-based Samsung continues to lay a foundation for the mass adoption of Bitcoin. Recently, the technology giant unveiled its second-generation Secure Element (SE) chip S3FV9RR and “enhanced” software for smartphones. Samsung designed the chip to secure the booting process, isolated storage, and mobile-based payments for mobile users. 

​S3FV9RR comes certified with Common Criteria (CC) EAL 6+ security standard. Experts may recognize the stringent security standard for protecting data on e-passports and cryptocurrency hardware wallets, making ​S3FV9RR one of the most secure mobile solutions. 

Samsung touts that the brand new security chip protects a user’s mobile payments and their digital currency transactions. Dongho Shin, Senior VP at Samsung Electronics, said that with this new offering, Samsung is “mounting a powerful deadbolt on smart devices to safeguard private information.”

“In this era of mobility and contact-less interactions, we expect our connected devices, such as smartphones or tablets, to be highly secure so as to protect personal data and enable Fintech activities such as mobile banking, stock trading, and cryptocurrency transactions.”

Samsung’s new security chip follows the first-generation solution (S3K250AF) announced in February.

The new chip can integrate into any mobile device, and the solution functions independently from the device’s central processor. The new security solution offers hardware-based root of trust (RoT) to protect lower layers of software from malware attacks. 

Samsung claims that this will help organizations run proprietary apps without fear of being attacked by cybercriminals. The company also states ​S3FV9RR will also make it very hard to implement attacks such as reverse engineering, power glitches, and laser attacks.

Following this news, Samsung also furthered its commitment to digital currencies by announcing a partnership with digital currency exchange Gemini, making it easier for users in the U.S. and Canada to buy digital currencies on Samsung phones.

Samsung’s Blockchain Wallet now integrates with the Gemini mobile app, allowing users to buy and sell digital currencies. Users will also be able to view their exchange account balances in the Samsung app and transfer their digital currencies into cold storage through Gemini’s custody feature.

After introducing the Blockchain Keystore in 2019, Samsung has become an early corporate leader in smartphone digital currency support. The digital currency-friendly firm earlier last month announced a team-up with the digital currency payment platform Swipe to add a digital currency payment feature to its Samsung Pay wallet. The new partnership comes as digital currency exchanges worldwide are dealing with uncertainty because of stalled user adoption and market price stagnation. 

Mass adoption will not come from FOMO or hysteria over fiat currency financial solvency. It comes from consumer product and services companies adopting the digital currency and making it frictionless for their consumers to own and transact. These moves highlight Samsung’s continued effort to integrate digital currencies into its global ecosystem.