Hard to disagree with Apple here. Crypto "absolutists" fail to acknowledge how prevalent crypto scams are, so a blanket enablement of any and all apps to have crypto payment features would be highly dangerous.
As "dangerous" as Safari, right? What difference does it being an app make? Apple's always so vigilant to keep us safe from danger in this one area of "payments that happen outside of the web browser" despite the fact that the web door is wide open and that's where scams always happen.
I can't imagine Apple's allergy to crypto payments is anything other than an insurance policy against the likes of Epic getting ideas to launch a cryptocurrency, which conveniently can be used to pay for in-app digital goods, circumventing the holy 30% tithe that is due to Apple.
> As "dangerous" as Safari, right? What difference does it being an app make?
Apple’s pitch from day one has been that the App Store is more trustworthy: it launched in the era where a common joke this time of year was going to have thanksgiving with your parents and removing all of the malware they’d installed on the home PC. Part of the justification for the restrictions on developers was explicitly that they’d benefit from being in a place customers trust, kind of like how much effort companies will spend to get a prestige retailer to carry their lineup.
> can't imagine Apple's allergy to crypto payments is anything other than an insurance policy against the likes of Epic getting ideas to launch a cryptocurrency
This wouldn’t change the situation so there’s no reason to believe this is intended to be some 5-dimensional chess game rather than a simple desire not to play in a scammy space with a much higher risk of complaints and regulatory issues.
I'm not a fan of Apple, but it looks like they're trying to lock down what they can and accepting what they can't.
I've no doubt that Apple would like to lock down the web too, but they don't have the clout to unilaterally change the internet. They can unilaterally do whatever they want to iOS though.
I can't imagine Apple's allergy to crypto payments is anything other than an insurance policy against the likes of Epic getting ideas to launch a cryptocurrency, which conveniently can be used to pay for in-app digital goods, circumventing the holy 30% tithe that is due to Apple.