South Korea To Rollout CBDC Offline Payments Via Samsung Galaxy Phones

Crypto market news: If everything goes according to plan, a joint research initiative by Samsung and the Bank of Korea could successfully implement central bank digital currency (CBDC) based offline payments via Samsung Galaxy smartphones and smartwatches. On Monday, Korean media reports said Samsung Electronics and the Bank of Korea will initiate joint research for developing an ecosystem for a CBDC. Accordingly, the company signed an official agreement with the central bank to perform research in the offline payments space.

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This is in continuation to the pilot project initiated in 2022 between the two parties, which was centered around CBDC technology enabling device to device transfers through near-field communication (NFC). The new initiative is said to be aimed at bypassing difficulties like the lack of network connectivity in South Korea’s internal locations. This is also an attempt to subvert the usage of card and cash payments in the country.

Samsung Galaxy Phones To Power Offline Payments

Samsung said that the research will focus on minimizing security issues in offline payments when made through Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones and smartwatches, as per The Korea Times report. Lee Seung-heon, senior deputy governor of the Bank of Korea, said,

“We look forward to Korea continuing to lead the way in offline CBDC technology, which is being actively researched by global central banks.”

However, the crypto market community is in principle opposing the implementation of the CBDCs, which are also based on blockchain, the underlying technology behind the cryptocurrencies.

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