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Today CoinbaseWallet tweeted, that Apple forced them to remove NFT transfers from iOS wallet, which includes all hardware products of Apple inc. like, iPhones, iPads and MacBook computers. According to Coinbase, the reason why the functionality of NFT’s transfers has been stopped on iOS wallets is that Apple were asking for 30% of every NFT transactions. This demand is technically is impossible, because Non-Custodial are gateway to the blockchain and allows users to, use and interacts with the dApps and protocols, so that being said all transactions fees are paid in cryptocurrency. Apple is tech company that doesn’t use any cryptocurrency through their payment service, ApplePay, therefore it is technically impossible for Coinbase to answer Apple’s demands and Apple hardware owners won’t be able to hold or transact NFT’s.
The CoinbaseWallet statded:
You might have noticed you can’t send NFTs on Coinbase Wallet iOS anymore. This is because Apple blocked our last app release until we disabled the feature. Apple’s claim is that the gas fees required to send NFTs need to be paid through their In-App Purchase system, so that they can collect 30% of the gas fee. For anyone who understands how NFTs and blockchains work, this is clearly not possible. Apple’s proprietary In-App Purchase system does not support crypto so we couldn’t comply even if we tried.
This is akin to Apple trying to take a cut of fees for every email that gets sent over open Internet protocols. The biggest impact from this policy change is on iPhone users that own NFTs – if you hold an NFT in a wallet on an iPhone, Apple just made it a lot harder to transfer that NFT to other wallets, or gift it to friends or family. Simply put, Apple has introduced new policies to protect their profits at the expense of consumer investment in NFTs and developer innovation across the crypto ecosystem.
In other hand in October, Apple inc., updated its App Store review guidelines to specifically address NFTs with this new addition under section 3.1.1 In-App Purchase:
Apps may use in-app purchase to sell and sell services related to non-fungible tokens (NFTs), such as minting, listing, and transferring. Apps may allow users to view their own NFTs, provided that NFT ownership does not unlock features or functionality within the app. Apps may allow users to browse NFT collections owned by others, provided that the apps may not include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than in-app purchase.
The CEO of Coinbase had tweet on his opinion on this issue, where he stated:
Good example of the kinds of discussions we have with Apple on a monthly basis, to deal with their app store monopoly. It’s gotten pretty absurd at times.
