Samsung Denies CopPay Crypto Payment Partnership

Despite a recent rumor that Samsung had entered a partnership with Lithuanian blockchain startup CopPay, the electronics giant announced that the deal is a fake. According to The Next Web, the alleged partnership would have enabled Samsung to allow its customers in three Baltic states to pay with crypto.

However, a Samsung spokesperson denied the partnership in an email, stating, “Our official response is that the rumor is not true.”

The alleged partnership was announced through a post on CopPay’s Medium blog, which is now deleted. If the announcement was the real deal, CopPay would have installed “cryptocurrency-focused merchant gateways in 31 physical Samsung stores across the Baltic. Among others, the announcement promised support for bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Dash, Nem and Steem.”

So far, there has been no explanation as to why the fake announcement was made.

False partnership announcements have been common in the industry. Back in March, cryptocurrency startup carVertical announced a deal with German automobile manufacturer BMW — a deal that turned out to be false. A few weeks later, Microsoft had to come forward to clarify it had no official partnership with IOTA, even though the startup announced its new data marketplace platform and included the software giant as a direct partner.

This turn of events doesn’t mean that Samsung fails to see benefits of blockchain. Earlier this year, it was reported that the company was looking into blockchain technology to manage its supply chain. Samsung SDS, the company’s logistics and IT unit, said blockchain may be able to cut logistics and shipping costs by 20 percent. The unit is reportedly looking into deploying a blockchain solution for Samsung Electronics.

“It will have an enormous impact on the supply chains of manufacturing industries,” said Samsung SDS’ VP and Blockchain Chief Song Kwang-woo of blockchain technology. “Blockchain is a core platform to fuel our digital transformation.”