coincodex.com
Key highlights:
- Samsung has introduced support for Ledger's hardware crypto wallets to its Galaxy smartphones
- Supported devices include the Ledger Nano S and Ledger Nano X
- Samsung first introduced blockchain private key management capabilities to its Galaxy smartphones in 2019
Samsung Galaxy phones now support Ledger's hardware cryptocurrency wallets
Samsung Electronics is continuing its involvement with cryptocurrency and blockchain tech – earlier today, the electronics giant announced that Samsung phones that support the Samsung Blockchain Wallet can now be connected with the Ledger Nano S and Ledger Nano X hardware wallets.
Samsung first started introducing cryptocurrency wallet functionality into its phones in 2019, and the Samsung Blockchain wallet now supports the Bitcoin, Ethereum and TRON blockchains (as well as ERC-20 and TRC-20 tokens). The wallet also allows users to connect to decentralized applications.
Selected Samsung smartphones contain the Samsung Blockchain Keystore where private keys can be stored in an environment that’s isolated from the rest of the phone’s operating system and protected by a Trusted Execution Environment.
CoinDesk spoke to Samsung’s head of blockchain Woon Ah Yoon, who explained that the integrated key storage functionality sits somewhere between a hot wallet and a cold wallet.
"The Samsung Blockchain Wallet is not 100% cold storage but it’s not a hot wallet either. It’s not susceptible to all the external attacks that could accompany an online connection. So it kind of sits in the middle of a cold wallet and a hot wallet; a warm wallet, you could say."
So, the freshly announced integration with the Ledger Nano S and Ledger Nano X wallets appears to be designed for users who require cold storage-level security. Hardware cryptocurrency wallets store cryptocurrency private keys and can sign transactions when connected to computers or mobile phones without actually leaking any information about the private keys to the outside device.
According to Samsung’s press release, the feature is supported on Galaxy smartphones with Android 9.0 or newer. The support for Ledger’s hardware wallets will also be available on Galaxy phones that don’t have Samsung Blockchain Keystore functionality, although the hardware wallet will have to be physically connected to the phone in this case.
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