Samsung Developing Ethereum-Based Blockchain, May Issue Own Token

South Korean electronics giant Samsung is developing its own blockchain network and eyeing the issuance of its own token further down the road.

An exclusive CoinDesk Korea report on Tuesday, citing a person "familiar with Samsung's internal situation,” said that the company’s blockchain task force – part of its wireless division – is building a blockchain mainnet based on ethereum. The work, however, is still at the “internal experimental” stage.

The source said:

"Currently, we are thinking of private blockchain, though it is not yet confirmed. It could also be public blockchain in the future, but I think it will be hybrid – that is, a combination of public and private blockchains.”

When the development of the blockchain is completed, Samsung may also move to launch a “Samsung Coin” token, according to the report.

The person said:

"The market expects Samsung Coin to come out, but the direction has not yet been decided."

If the company develops a public blockchain in the future, then Samsung Coin could be traded publicly on cryptocurrency exchanges just like bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH). Samsung could also bring blockchain technology to its payments app Samsung Pay, but the move is not yet decided, according to the source.

Samsung’s blockchain task force has been in active development for at least a year, and is working on a number of projects, according to the report.

Two months ago, the company made a leap into the blockchain arena with the unveiling of its flagship cellphone, the Galaxy S10, which has the ability to store cryptocurrency private keys and other features such as support blockchain-based digital signatures.

In March, Samsung officially revealed the cryptocurrency wallet, which is compatible with ether (ETH) and ethereum-based ERC20 tokens, although notably not bitcoin in early glimpses. According to some reports, the wallet is not yet available in some jurisdictions.

The S10 also supports decentralized apps (dapps) such as crypto gaming platform Enjin, beauty community Cosmee, crypto collectibles platform CryptoKitties and merchant payments service CoinDuck.

Edit (14:40 UTC): Corrected an error arising from translation. CoinDesk Korea's source was not, in fact, described as an official.

Samsung image via Shutterstock