Hello readers, and welcome back!
I wrote last week about the issues facing Axie in the wake of the $625 million robbery. I'm talking about Apple this week.
Follow me on social media and subscribe to my newsletter.
The image is from Apple.
Sarah wrote a story about an app in the App Store that was suddenly banned by Apple despite the fact that it had been in use for months. Apple argued that the app was misleading consumers by selling NFTs that could not be resold and that they weren't even stored on a blockchain. The app is built to live in the gray area of Apple's non-existent guidance for NFTs, but that is not the fault of the app developer. Within an hour of our story going live, Apple restored it to the App Store.
What exactly are Apple's plans for NFTs?
On the other hand, I'm sure Apple would like nothing more than to ban NFTs from the App Store. It is difficult to protect users from scam in today's NFT environment, which is why Apple has argued a key area of the App Store's utility is in protecting users. It would require Apple to build out its own internal SEC to regulate the industry inside the walled garden of its App Store.
Apple also loves money, more specifically, services revenue from the App Store.
Apple brings in tens of billions of dollars in revenue every year from gaming in the App Store. Apple's hold on in-app payments in mobile gaming is at risk if gaming companies embrace NFTs in a major way over the next decade.
How does Apple think of its IAP in-app payments system?
While individual apps might be able to justify the Apple tax on primary sales of NFTs, there is no way that those same fees will fly for secondary peer-to-peer sales of already-owned NFTs. NFT storefronts like OpenSea and Rarible have released apps on the App Store already, but these native apps only allow users to view NFTs, not engage with their storefronts at all. Most legit NFT startups are weighing how to proceed on mobile, and Apple holding off on clear guidelines could push more developers toward investing in web-based experiences, which circumvent App Store rules.
One thing that is clear is that if Apple creates a specific carve-out for NFTs in its own App Store rules, it will be on its own terms. I could see a world in which Apple could only allow certain assets on certain blockchains, or even build out their own. Apple's path toward controlling the user experience will most likely rely on Apple taking a direct hand in crafting their own smart contracts for NFTs, which developers might be forced to use in order to stay compliant with App Store rules.
This is an effort to make sure that consumers have a consistent experience and can trust NFT platforms on the App Store. These smart contracts could send Apple royalties automatically and lead to a new in-app payment fee line, one that could even persist in transactions that took place outside of the Apple ecosystem. More complex functions could be baked in to allow Apple to handle more complex transactions.
Any of these moves would be highly controversial among developers. It would mark a major shift in the world of scrypt if Apple mandated how smart contracts are written and which ones are allowed to be used. I think it's clear that Apple is going to have a hard time ignoring this market for a long time.
The photo was taken by JAM STA ROSA.
I think you should take a closer look at these stories.
The $150 million in funding for Axie was a result of the $625 million robbery.
A little follow-up to my newsletter last week… crypto game Axie Infinity, which got hacked in a major way, announced this week that they had raised $150 million from Binance, which it will be adding to its own funds to replace the money stolen last week by a hacker.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
