Samsung Galaxy S10 is out but its cryptocurrency wallet is AWOL

By Tim Copeland

The Samsung Galaxy S10 has finally landed on the doorsteps of crypto-junkies across the world but many have been left disappointed. Samsung had promised that its flagship phone would include secure storage for cryptocurrencies, but this option doesn’t seem to exist for everyone, at least right now.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 was announced with much fanfare on February 20 and was available to buy from March 8, in 70 countries (which will expand to 130 countries by the end of this month.) But many buyers across the world have been left confused and disappointed when they discovered that its in-built cryptocurrency features are supported in just three countries.

Samsung kept the details of the S10’s crypto wallet scant. A single line in a press release confirmed it would include secure storage for private keys—used to make cryptocurrency transactions. The South Korean mobile maker also promised a standalone app for making use of this function, called Blockchain Keystore.

According to a tweet by Samsung Australia, these cryptocurrency features will only be accessible for users in Germany, Korea and the U.S., at this stage. In fact, it’s unclear when the feature will be available to other countries, if at all.

Considering this was not clear at the outset, many users have been left in the dark and wondering how to activate the cryptocurrency features. It appears that you can make the security setting appear and get the app by downloading two installs from APKMirror, a site for Android downloads. However, for most users, a message appears that it can’t connect to the server and the app doesn’t progress past an introduction message.

If you do happen to live in Germany, Korea and the U.S., the secure storage can be accessed by going into the phone settings and looking in the biometrics and security section. The Blockchain Keystore app can be downloaded from the Android Play store.

But if you live in the countries where the features are, as yet unsupported, and paid $900 in anticipation of them, their absence is likely to be a blow. So let’s hope Samsung gets its act together and rolls the features out worldwide, and sharpish.

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