Samsung adds Stellar support to millions of Galaxy devices
The Stellar Development Foundation announced today that Samsung has added support for the Stellar cryptocurrency to its Samsung Blockchain Keystore, making it available to blockchain apps on recent Galaxy mobile devices. To make storage of Stellar lumens and other Stellar-based assets safer, SatoshiPay will utilize the Samsung Blockchain Keystore in its Solar wallet and its upcoming SatoshiPay B2B mobile app.
About Samsung Blockchain Keystore
Observing that many of their users are engaging with blockchain applications on a daily basis, Samsung decided to leverage their hardware advantage to launch a first instalment of their blockchain strategy. As an extension of their Android-based mobile device operating system, Samsung introduced a hardware-protected storage facility for cryptocurrency private keys called Samsung Blockchain Keystore in 2019. The keystore is physically isolated from the shared data storage on mobile devices using the Samsung Knox TrustZone hardware facility. Apps that use the keystore are certified by Samsung and the user needs to link the app to the keystore initially, using a password or biometric authentication such as their fingerprint.
The private keys located in the keystore are never uploaded to any cloud service, nor are they seen by the underlying Android operating system. Instead, apps request “approval” by cryptographic signature from the keystore, for example to make payments or verify identity. The keystore is also protected from unauthorized physical access by disassembling the mobile device and thus compares to popular external hardware wallets like Ledger or Trezor.
The keystore is available on selected recent Samsung Galaxy devices, like S10, S20 or Note10, and in selected regions, see Samsung’s Restrictions section. App developers can integrate the keystore by using the official Samsung Blockchain Keystore SDK. Blockchains currently supported by the SDK are:
- Ethereum (v1.0, 27 Jun 2019)
- Bitcoin (v1.1, 8 Aug 2019)
- Klaytn (v1.1, 8 Aug 2019)
- Tron (v1.2, 29 Oct 2019)
- Stellar (v1.3, 17 Feb 2020)
How SatoshiPay currently stores private keys
Since all of our products have blockchain wallets at their heart, we need to make sure that we store private keys that control funds in these wallets safe from potential unintended usage, may it be through error by the user or through an attacker.
For our browser-based micropayments wallet we use the LocalStorage on the user’s device to store the private key. In order to make payments as frictionless as possible and because users typically only keep “pocket change” amounts in this wallet, we do not use password protection by default. Convenience is kept high and safety is designed having the relatively low value that is stored in the wallet in mind. Via an optional login feature we allow users to store their private keys on our servers, encrypted and secured by a password of course, so only end users will be able to read their private keys. We never have access to private keys of users.
Our cross-platform Stellar wallet software Solar uses the device’s keychain on mobile devices or the local file storage on desktop platforms. Users can optionally set a password for each individual wallet account they create in the app, which will be used to encrypt the private keys.
The SatoshiPay B2B cross-border money transfer service will be offered through a web interface, but also be available as a stand-alone app in the future. This cross-platform app will use a similar approach to Solar for customers that prefer to be sole custodians of their own private keys.
Hardware-protected key storage improves safety of SatoshiPay apps
We recognize that our users and especially businesses store significant amounts of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins using our wallets. In addition to our current encrypted storage of keys and advanced support for multi-signature, requiring the approval of more than one person or entity to move funds, we will further improve the safety of funds stored by adding hardware protection. This underlines our focus on business transactions, which tend to be larger and often have stricter security policies.
Future versions of Solar’s Android version will be extended to allow users to link the app to the Samsung Blockchain Keystore, where available. In fact, we are also working on support for other hardware-based wallets.
SatoshiPay B2B’s stand-alone app will also feature support for Samsung’s keystore and other hardware wallets to secure large holdings and transfers.
Stay tuned!
Download Solar or follow us on Twitter @SatoshiPay to be the first to know when we launch Samsung Blockchain Storage support. And while you are here: If you are running a business and want to make your cross-border money transfers faster, cheaper and more transparent, register your interest in SatoshiPay B2B. Be safe out there! 🦺😉
