We are always excited when forward-thinking companies do things that advance the adoption of cryptocurrency, so we were especially excited to learn about Gemini’s recent partnership with Samsung. In case you missed the news, Gemini, a U.S. based cryptocurrency exchange founded by the Winklevoss twins, recently teamed up with Samsung for mobile wallet integration. This partnership, the first of its kind, enables U.S. and Canadian Samsung smartphone users to access the Samsung Blockchain Wallet in conjunction with Gemini’s mobile application. By connecting their Samsung Blockchain Wallet to Gemini, users can buy and sell cryptocurrency, access their Gemini account balances, and transfer their crypto into cold storage with Gemini Custody.

The partnership between Gemini and Samsung could potentially open doors for many things when it comes to crypto adoption. We spoke with some industry leaders for their ideas on what’s next:

Cryptocurrency and gaming

“I believe we’re going to see a strong push towards crypto in both gaming and online communities as a way to monetize. We’re already seeing the first stages of this via the Ethereum integration into the Fortnite section of Reddit, and with the user experience improving rapidly, I believe we’ll see a wave of games supporting crypto before the end of 2021. Possibly even Fortnite itself with the move to the latest version of their graphics engine, Unreal Engine 5.”

-Chad Barnsdale, Founder of Unfinished Man

Cryptocurrency and healthcare

“The recent adoption and of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology within the healthcare sector cannot be understated. Blockchain technology increases the efficiency of processing records and makes data immutable which removes the element of trust. We can already see the scope for faster, more efficient and cost effective transmission of data and records on the blockchain which could drastically increase productivity and overall patient/practitioner satisfaction. Blockchain can eliminate doctor-patient confidentiality breaches, improve medical research and prevent many human errors.

The wider implantation of blockchain and cryptocurrency in medicine, however, poses a huge threat to the current monopolization and overpricing within the Pharmaceutical industry. While many are already investing in initial coin offerings from giants such as Starbucks, Coca-Cola and Nike, the appeal of buying in to discredited big-pharma companies seems significantly less than that of those zeitgeist-coins.

If banks are threatened by cryptocurrency then the pharmaceutical giants should be terrified. If medicine can be decentralized in a trust-less, borderless way, we could see a complete shift in global healthcare equality and the various structures which exist to restrict access for so many. Cryptocurrency has the potential to incentivize the de-structuring of the current pharmaceutical paradigm. Not only could blockchain and crypto allow for access to fairly priced medicine and healthcare to anyone regardless of citizenship, it could also ensure that provenance is upheld in supply chains for medicine and all other healthcare professions so that should a pandemic occur and the demand for PPE and tests increases drastically, governments would not be scrambling to obtain unverified, unusable medical supplies from untrustworthy sources.”

-Jack Beavers, Director of www.beginnerscryptoguide.com

Bitcoin and large companies

“Such partnerships are crucial for Bitcoins adoption in the ecosystem. When more and more people will use Bitcoin, larger organizations will have no option but to integrate wallets into their existing devices/software, because if they don’t, users will have to use other alternatives to send/receive, trade and use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency features. It won’t be long when you will hear PayPal integrating Bitcoin wallets in their payment gateways. I believe most organizations will be left with no option but to welcome Bitcoin.”

-Sidharth Sogani, Founder and CEO of CREBACO Global Inc.

Crypto payments

“CryptoBucks (powered by Aliant Payments) became one of the first payment processors to offer merchants the ability to accept crypto payments back in 2017, and I believe we are still the only one offering it free of charge.

We’ve partnered with merchants in a variety of industries, including auto dealerships (Bob Moore Auto Group) and professional sports (Miami Dolphins). The Dolphins accepted crypto payments for their 50/50 raffle last season, and there was an average of 46 crypto transactions per game. The raffle proceeds also jumped from an average of $72,000 per game to $86,000.

We were previously running our crypto processing solution, called CryptoBucks, through partners, but we have spent the last few months developing our own mobile application so we can run it entirely in-house. The CryptoBucks app will launch this summer.”

-Eric Brown, CEO of Aliant Payments and CryptoBucks