Consumer tech giant Samsung is looking into launching a central bank digital currency in a collaboration with the Bank of Korea. The South Korean electronics firm said Monday that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the country’s central bank to conduct technical research on the digital currency.
Samsung refers to a digital currency issued by a central bank, would work “offline” and could be sent between owners of its Galaxy smartphone and smartwatches thanks to a secure chip in the devices. Payments could be made between devices through the use of near-field communication technology, which is built into smartphones to enable contactless payments, Samsung said. Samsung said it developed a solution applying NFC technology to CBDCs last year. This allowed users to make a payment even when they had no internet connection, the company added.