The Galaxy S10 has been a highly anticipated since consumers found out that it would be enabling support for cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin and Ethereum. The use of these token is made possible through a Blockchain Keystore application.
Now, information for the smartphone has finally been released, and the Blockchain Keystore app is basically a crypto-based wallet. However, consumers have noticed a major missing piece – support for Bitcoin.
The Galaxy S10 does not technically drop for consumers until tomorrow on March 8th, but there have already been several retail customers to have access to the flagship blockchain smartphone.
With many unboxing videos popping up online, influencers in the industry are playing a game of show-and-tell with their new features, showing the benefits of Blockchain Keystore and the support of Ethereum.
Somehow, despite being the top cryptocurrency by market cap for a whole decade, Bitcoin missed the cut. One unboxing video reveals these features while noting the lack of Bitcoin support.
Samsung Galaxy S10 crypto wallet appears to have left out Bitcoin at launch. For now it looks like it's Ethereum-only! 😮https://t.co/j0eFmTphJY
— CRN (@crn_maximizer) March 4, 2019
There are a lot of details on this product that are still unconfirmed, like whether the use of an Ethereum wallet address makes it possible to support ERC-20 tokens. Often, crypto wallets with Ethereum support will offer this benefit, ensuring that consumers are able to use tokens like Basic Attention Token (BAT), 0x (ZRX), Maker (MKR), and many others.
Still, no matter how many benefits that the Galaxy S10 has, the fact that Bitcoin was omitted seems to be a fact that was largely ignored during all of the press releases on the product.
Considering that it is basically the face of cryptocurrency, many consumers are wondering why it hasn’t been supported in this new wallet, especially with the launch of such a game-changing smartphone.
Many smartphone companies will launch the original product and follow up with updates that add more benefits, like the support for Bitcoin. It is possible that the company will wait to see how the smartphone performs with Ethereum before they bring in the original cryptocurrency. Still, since there’s still limited interest in the industry at this point, there is a chance that further development of this feature may be forgone.
Blockchain-based smartphones with crypto benefits are a growing trend, considering that these manufacturers aim to be innovative on the technology front.
Along with the S10, the HTC Exodus has access to blockchain-based features, though they are not directly tied in with the Android operating system. Sirin Labs also launched a blockchain-based smartphone, and the XPhone from Pundi X will soon be launched this year as well.
