The Good and Bad Side of Apple Allowing NFT Sales
NFTs are taking over the world. According to BlueWeae, The Global NFT Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 24% during 2022-2028.
Table of Contents
From governments to big tech companies like Facebook, everyone wants to be a part of this NFTs space to be benefited on the journey.
Governments are imposing taxes on such digital assets even without any clear regulation or law.
On the other, hand giant investment funds are pouring their money into various NFT projects and Metavese startups.
Now the tech giant Apple has also joined the race. Apple has allowed NFT apps to be listed on its app store.
It means now developers or NFT startups such as GameFI companies will be able to sell NFTs through apps on smartphones.
Unlike other players, Apple didn’t take the direct path to get into this crypto market.
However, Apple mandates in-app payments through the App Store, which carries a 30% commission fee, for NFT vendors on its mobile marketplace.
The news got mixed reactions from NFT marketplaces such as Magic Eden and the developer community.
There are some good sides to it and some bad.
Apple In-App Policy
Apple allows apps to be listed on its app store marketplace and charges a 30% flat fee on in-app purchases.
It means whenever a user purchases the app whether it is a gaming or learning app, Apple charges a 30% commission on the revenue upfront. For some developers or businesses, this fee may not mean anything however, for small startups or new vendors it is a huge cut on their revenue and profit.
Therefore, the 30% commission, Apple has always been a controversial topic.
Now even though Apple has announced the acceptance of such NFT apps it does not seem to be supporting the crypto space.
As crypto is still a new market. And NFTs market is crowded with fraud collections and projects. In this space, it will get harder for an honest project to survive.
After the announcement, Apple got mixed reactions.
The Bad Side
Other NFT marketplaces that are mostly web-based do not charge that high commission. NFT marketplace OpenSea only charges 2.5% from the sale.
On the other hand, users will have to pay in fiat currency such as USD to buy these NFTs because Apple will not allow crypto transactions.
Solana-based NFT marketplace is also not in support of this policy. After learning about the policy, it pulled its service from the App Store. Magic Eden was offered a lower 15% commission rate, yet they opted to not go with this deal.
Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games (Forgnight’s creator) has reacted on Twitter and said “Now Apple is killing all NFT app businesses it can’t tax, crushing another nascent technology that could rival its grotesquely overpriced in-app payment service. Apple must be stopped.”
In this way, the bad side of this decision is that Apple can destroy little NFT companies. Some businesses won’t be able to afford that cut.
The shortcomings of Web2—closed systems, high commission costs, and corporate censorship—were addressed with the development of Web3.
But now some web2 companies such as Apple wants to rule this space as well.
The Good Side
However, some well-known people in the crypto space have supported this move and called it a positive step.
Gabriel Leyden CEO of a blockchain-based company has said “Everyone is focusing on Apple wanting its 30% cut of each transaction without realizing this could put an ETH wallet in every single mobile game onboarding 1B+ players!” He added, “I will HAPPILY give Apple a 30% cut of a free NFT.”
Some people are supporting the move as it can put crypto wallets on everyone’s phone. Thus, bringing the mass adoption of crypto and NFTs.
This will also fuel more universal and valuable developments in the NFT space.
Mass adoption of NFTs and blockchain such as Ethereum will create more value in the crypto market.
In this way, the positive sign of this news is that there will be millions of people who can access NFTs.
Companies can still distribute NFTs without charge and permit customers to resell them.
Businesses may onboard millions of users in this way, provide value, and evade the 30% tax.
Final Thoughts
This is the first step Apple took toward the crypto space. However, even before this some other crypto apps, Exchanges, and Wallets such as Coinbase and Metamask were still available on the Apple app store.
Though it is the first step into the rapidly growing NFT space. This news came some days after Starbucks announced its NFT reward platform Starbucks Odyssey, in partnership with Polygon.
