The Samsung Wallet was unveiled at Samsung’s “Unpacked 2022” virtual event, which also featured the launch of the Galaxy S22 Ultra smartphone.
The tech giant advertised the wallet as having the ability to “access and explore complex digital products” like cryptocurrency. According to sources, it can also securely store personal credentials including student IDs, driver’s licences, and state IDs, as well as digital keys, credit and debit card information, vaccination certificates, and boarding passes.
The Samsung Wallet works with Samsung Pay, the company’s own payment platform. Samsung’s Knox Vault platform will provide security by encrypting sensitive data and blockchain keys and isolating them from the phone’s operating system.
The secure wallet competes directly with Apple Wallet, which securely holds critical personal data. Samsung, on the other hand, is ahead of Apple in that it supports crypto asset storage and payments, which Apple lacks.
In Samsung’s Feb 10 announcement, however, there was virtually little information on crypto capabilities, supported coins, or asset storage mechanism.
Apple announced upgrades to its Apple Pay system on February 8th, including the introduction of Tap to Pay on the iPhone.
The functionality will allow retailers across the United States to accept contactless payments, but it will not support cryptocurrencies because the firm is still weighing up the idea.
In the Decentraland Metaverse, Samsung revealed their new Galaxy devices at a virtual Samsung 837X venue. More than 100,000 people registered for the virtual event, which included the opportunity to pre-order the new premium devices.
In early January, the firm made its metaverse debut by launching its flagship 837 store in collaboration with Decentraland. “This is one of the largest brand land takeovers in the history of Decentraland,” the company claimed at the time.
Samsung has also entered the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). It announced in early January that its 2022 TVs will handle NFTs natively, allowing collectors to buy art assets securely through a platform on the company’s smart TV lineup.
The South Korean central bank’s digital currency experiment will be embedded into Samsung’s flagship devices, according to reports from August last year.
