A few days ago, a report came out that said Samsung stores in the Baltic States will begin accepting cryptocurrencies.
That report can be seen here:
https://news.bitcoin.com/samsung-stores-in-the-baltic-states-now-accept-cryptocurrencies/
The report said that Samsung stores in the Baltic States had struck a partnership with the payment processing firm Coppay which would facilitate the use of 7 different cryptocurrencies within the region.
Those 7 being:
BTC
ETH
DASH
NEM
XRP
LTC
and.... (drum roll)
STEEM
Specifically, customers shopping at the Samsung stores in Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, and Kaunas were said to be able to use any of the above mentioned cryptocurrencies.
(Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/samsung-stores-in-the-baltic-states-now-accept-cryptocurrencies/)
This is where things seem to have gotten a bit strange...
The next day after the news report was released, an update was added to the report.
The update reads as follows:
**This post has been updated on July 23, 2018. According to a few reports, a Samsung spokesperson has explained the firm does not have a partnership with the Coppay company. The Coppay firm denied these findings, but have since deleted their blog post announcement. Which means it’s very likely that Samsung stores in the Baltic states don’t accept cryptocurrencies for payments.
(Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/samsung-stores-in-the-baltic-states-now-accept-cryptocurrencies/)
Coppay originally said this in their announcement:
“Customers in Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, and Kaunas can buy Samsung smartphones, tablets, laptops, TV-sets, and more with digital money."
Coppay denied the above findings about there not being a partnership, but has since deleted their blog post...
Hmm...
(Source: https://www.riskbasedsecurity.com/2018/04/what-harm-can-come-from-missing-59000-vulnerabilities/)
Seems like there is no cryptocurrency partnerhip in place right? Not so fast...
Given the above information, it looks very much like these Samsung stores will not be accepting cryptocurrency payments.
However, I stumbled upon this written by fellow steemit user 
https://steemit.com/steem/@onealfa/samsung-accepts-now-s-t-e-e-m-aba1e3f3efc5fest
Basically he is noticing the same confusion around the news as I am.
However, this part of his post is very interesting...
Check it out:
"Next (even today is Sunday), I have made personally a phone calls to local Samsung shops in Vilnius, and was able to get a verbal confirmation, that all is true, I can come any moment, and they will accept my payment for any possible product in Bitcoin. Woo-hoooo!
Not only Bitcoin core (BTC) is honored, but also Dash (DASH), NEM (XEM), Steem (STEEM) ( !!!), Ripple (XRP), Litecoin (LTC), and Ethereum (ETH)."
(Source: https://steemit.com/steem/@onealfa/samsung-accepts-now-s-t-e-e-m-aba1e3f3efc5fest)
Well there you have it folks...
It sounds like a fellow steemit user got verbal confirmation that the news is legitimate despite an update that came shortly after the original announcement saying otherwise.
Steem and other cryptocurrencies will be accepted at Samsung stores within the Baltic States!
This is a great step in the right direction of getting steem and cryptocurrency to actually have some real world use cases aside from just speculation.
Stay informed my friends.
