The IT arm of South Korean tech giant Samsung announced it had developed technology to speed up blockchain transactions, the company confirmed in a press release on Feb 14. Presenting at the ongoing IBM Think 2019 conference in San Francisco, Samsung SDS said its new technology, Nexledger Accelerator, had already passed testing with Hyperledger Fabric. “In order to improve transaction processing speed, which is a key consideration in applying blockchain technology, Samsung SDS has developed its own Nexledger Accelerator, which can be applied to Hyperledger Fabric,” the press release explained: “Samsung SDS tested the Nexledger Accelerator in Hyperledger Fabric last …

Images allegedly portraying the upcoming smartphone Samsung Galaxy S10 showing a “Samsung Blockchain Keystore” app surfaced on Twitter on Jan. 23. The images have been leaked by Benjamin Geskin, a person who has been defined a “serial mobile leaker” by Apple-related news website MacRumors after he leaked photos of the iPhone X Plus. The reportedly leaked photos feature only an Ethereum (ETH) wallet option in the “supported cryptocurrencies” list. Even if those images portrait real software that will be present on the upcoming smartphone, it may gain support for other cryptos as the development continues before the launch. Samsung has …

Decentralization is a more important phenomenon than blockchain, a senior executive at South Korean tech giant Samsung said in an interview with computing magazine JAX Jan. 10. Speaking about the future of blockchain, Ricardo J. Méndez, Technical Director at the firm’s innovative technology arm Samsung NEXT, forecast a consolidation of the space in the coming year, but underscored the importance of reshaping centralized structures. Asked whether he thought decentralization was more important than blockchain, Mendez replied: “Without question. Blockchain is just one more tool, and one that can help in decentralized contexts, but a tool is always less important than …

2018 has been a difficult year for Bitcoin and crypto miners. Some of the largest multi-billion dollar businesses in Asia recorded losses in the range of hundreds of millions of dollars. As Japanese internet conglomerate GMO and the industry’s largest mining equipment manufacturer, Bitmain, reportedly struggled throughout the year, the entire sector is said to have ended the year with significant losses, following the trend of the two companies. $320 million loss for GMO GMO, one of the most influential internet companies in Japan, recorded a loss of over $320 million in the fourth quarter of 2018. Following what the …

South Korean electronics giant Samsung is apparently seeking a trademark in the United Kingdom for a cryptocurrency wallet, according to a Dec. 27 filing with the U.K. Intellectual Property Office. In the “Classes and terms” section of the application, Samsung cites such developments as “Computer software for use as a cryptocurrency wallet; Computer software for cryptocurrency transfer and payment using blockchain technology; Computer application software for smartphones, namely, software to allow users to transfer cryptocurrency based on blockchain technology and pay via 3rd party’s application software.” The application follows rumors — subsequently refuted by Samsung — that the company has …

Samsung has refuted rumors that it has plans to offer a cryptocurrency cold wallet on its Galaxy S10 smartphone, in comments to Cointelegraph Dec. 11. The Korean-headquartered transnational tech conglomerate had recently filed three E.U. trademarks for blockchain- and cryptocurrency-software Dec. 10. As reported by Samsung community news sharing site SamMobile today, Dec. 11, the trademark requests are part of alleged plans to offer a cryptocurrency cold wallet on the Galaxy S10 smartphone, but this suggestion was swiftly refuted by Samsung in private correspondence with Cointelegraph: “Unfortunately we are unable to provide any information as the below is rumour and …

Throughout 2018, the cryptocurrency market experienced the fourth worst correction in its nine-year history, as Bitcoin lost more than 69 percent of the value from its all-time high of $19,500. Despite the substantial decline in the price of Bitcoin (BTC), which heavily affects the earnings of miners, the hash power of the Bitcoin network has continuously increased throughout the past 10 months, from 15 million TH/s to over 50 million TH/s from January to October. As portrayed by the research of blockchain analyst Barclay James, the breakeven cost of mining Bitcoin at 35 million TH/s is around $6,900. The formula …

Dapper Labs, developer of the world’s most used blockchain app CryptoKitties, has received $15 million in another financing round, global news agency PR Newswire reported on Nov. 1. The new funding will help the Canada-founded Dapper Labs to expand it services on a local and global scale, as well as to address infrastructure issues and to boost mainstream adoption of distributed ledger technology (DLT). According to the press release, the company is planning to set up a subsidiary in the U.S. headed by execs from video gaming firms Unity and Disney. Led by Venrock, the official venture capital arm of …

The largest port in Europe, the Port of Rotterdam, has partnered with major Dutch bank ABN AMRO and the IT subsidiary of Samsung to test blockchain for shipping, a press-release from Samsung reports Monday, Oct. 22. According to Samsung SDS – the IT and tech division created by Korean tech giant Samsung – the trial will focus on shipping containers from an unnamed factory in Asia to the port of Rotterdam. The first test will be completed by the three above-mentioned parties, with plans to later open the network to other companies. As per the Port of Rotterdam’s official announcement, …

Samsung’s production wing, Samsung Foundry, has launched a new production process of its 7-nanometer (nm) Low Power Plus (7LPP) process node, which could reduce its energy consumption by up to 50 percent, according to an official press release Oct. 18. The new process, based on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology, makes the new 7LPP chips more dense (area efficient) and energy efficient. This could have positive implications for crypto miners usings Samsung’s hardware, as energy costs prove to be a critical factor in the industry’s profitability. As mining hardware develops at a rapid pace, chips continue to become smaller and …

The crypto market and blockchain sector of South Korea, the third-largest digital asset exchange market in the world behind the United States and Japan, have some of the most robust systems and infrastructure in place to protect investors and facilitate the growing demand for cryptocurrencies. The strong infrastructure of the country’s cryptocurrency market is primarily attributable to the involvement of major multi-billion dollar conglomerates and commercial banks that have assisted the growth of local crypto-related businesses over the past two years. In late 2017, as the valuation of the crypto market achieved an all-time high of nearly $900 billion, interest …

IBM has won a patent for the autonomous self-servicing of networked devices that form part of its Autonomous Decentralized Peer-to-Peer Telemetry (ADEPT) environment. The patent, first filed in late June 2016, was awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) September 18. IBM first unveiled a proof-of-concept (PoC) for ADEPT in partnership with Samsung back in March 2016. The system uses a blockchain protocol as a basis for a distributed network of devices — what Samsung has called “a sort of decentralized Internet of Things (IoT).” As IBM explains as a background to its new patent filing, “IoT controllers …