Apple includes NFTs in the App Store

The Cupertino-based giant, Apple, has decided to allow sale of NFTs through the App Store.

The sale of NFTs at Apple’s store

In a long-awaited announcement, apple has let it be known that it will allow developers to sell their NFTs through its app store, within games and apps, although this has raised some eyebrows in the crypto community.

Apple has decided to allow developers to sell NFTs inside games/apps. Everyone is focusing on Apple wanting a 30% cut of every transaction not realizing that this could put an ETH wallet in every single mobile game with 1B+ players!

— Gabriel Leydon (FREE, OWN) (@gabrileydon) 23 September 2022

Now developers of current apps can sell NFTs in apps and new apps can have NFTs in them. However, as pointed out by some, attention is drawn to the fierce 30% fee of each NFT transaction from Apple. Obviously, the boom that the NFT market enjoyed last year has also attracted a giant like Apple, which has clearly decided to jump into this interesting market to do further business, and take advantage of its dominant position in the app market, thanks be its App Store.

Precisely for this reason, it seems that many start-ups are not at all interested in using the App store, while according to the company there have already been many requests from developers and start-ups. Several startups complain that the rules Apple has allegedly imposed on them and the 30% fees make it impossible to use the App Store.

Apple has tried to seek cover by reducing the fee to 15% for companies with invoices under $1 million, but the response from companies in the industry continues to be very weak. It is enough to consider that the average transaction cost is around 2-3%.

However, it is not only the high fees that drive developers away from the App Store, but also other rules, such as that transactions must be made in dollars or other currencies, and not cryptocurrencies.

Upon Apple’s release of this notice, Arthur Sabintsev of the blockchain company Pocket Network, said that this problem

“makes it very difficult to price it because you have to program all these values ​​dynamically.”

As a result, Sabintsev said he advised one of his clients to let users buy currency in the app:

“The same way some games do. They buy the currency, and that transaction gives Apple 30%, then they spend it in the app on deals.”

Apple’s uncertain goals

Apple will also require all developers who released games with NFTs to transfer it only as in-app purchases. A rule that undermines the principle of disintermediation typical of blockchain-based cryptoassets, which can be freely transferred between cryptowallets without the need for third-party oversight. In that case, NFTs are sold peer-to-peer with no additional fees other than “gas fees” or a “sales fee” imposed by the game itself.

To some, all these rules make it appear that there is little real interest on Apple’s part in developing this NFT sector, which has slowed down sharply in early 2022 in the wake of major declines in the cryptocurrency market.

Alexei FalinCEO of well-known NFT platform Rarible, said:

“It seems the position is that Apple doesn’t really want users [of the App Store] to be able to buy or sell NFTs. It is almost impossible because these are fixed subscriptions or fixed prices.”

Falin also argued how it took months to get Rarible’s app on the App Store, compared to just a few days for the Google Play Store. Apple’s App Store is currently hosted 3.59 million apps and 984,000 games.

While Apple seems to adopt an initially restrictive policy towards all things related to NFTs, other giants on the other hand seem to want to move decisively against NFTs, especially in light of the new developments that could happen with Web3 and Metaverse.

Disney wants to develop its metaverse idea

In recent days, the company has posted a job advertisement on LinkedIn seeking a lawyer specializing in digital asset transactions with a focus on the world of NFTs to explore new technological possibilities.

The job advertisement reads:

“Participate with the business teams as they plan new global emerging technology projects across additional segments such as metaverse and decentralized finance.

Assist in performing due diligence for NFT, blockchain, third-party marketplace and cloud provider projects, and negotiate and draft complex agreements for these projects.”

Then again, the company’s CEO, Bob Chapekhas repeatedly stated, as recently as September 10, that Disney is ready to explore the new frontier of the metaverse:

“We call it next generation storytelling. We don’t use the Metaverse word too often because it has so much hair in it.”

In February, Disney hired a business development manager with a specific focus on the NFT world. The former Disney executive said months ago that he had been surprised by how many Disney items in NFTs he had come up with Open sea platform, most of which were without rights to create them, and thus pirated.

In February, the company released the first four NFT collections, under the name “Golden Moments”, one for each of Disney’s franchises: Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel, and animation studio. The collections were sold out within hours on the Veve platform, which was responsible for the sale.

The NFT industry has already taken the fashion world by storm, with big brands from Gucci to Prada to Richmond, Cartier Hublot and Nike have already launched unique NFT collections in recent months.

In August the coffee giant Starbucks launched its NFT rewards program, while the sports world finds precisely in NFTs a new way to expand its business, thanks to new opportunities for interaction with its fans.