In the US, they complained that the App Store interferes with the development of the blockchain
Date: 2023-07-31 Author: Karina Ziganova Categories: BLOCKCHAIN, BUSINESS
Two U.S. lawmakers have sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook over the App Store's app marketplace policy on blockchain and crypto innovation.
The authors of the appeal were two legislators - Gus Bilirakis and Jan Szakowski. They asked if Apple is really stifling innovation, especially when it comes to distributed ledger (DLT) and non-fungible token (NFT) technologies.
What's wrong with Apple's policy
They noted that Apple may have used the App Store to capitalize on the deployment of "lite" versions, while significantly reducing the usefulness of apps. In their opinion, Apple is trying to suppress competition in the blockchain gaming world.
While Apple claims that these rules improve security, "many are concerned that the company has used the App Store as a weapon against competitors." In this regard, lawmakers demanded that the tech giant answer a couple of questions, seeking to learn about its future updates and policies as they relate to its core interests.
The App Store puts forward its own requirements for applications of crypto projects
In September last year, Apple allowed NFT apps to be listed on the App Store, retaining 30% commissions on each financial transaction. However, since then, a number of blockchain projects have faced problems when releasing their applications on the marketplace.
In particular, the decentralized crypto exchange (DEX) Uniswap introduced a crypto wallet in early spring, but for a long time Apple did not allow the app to be publicly released in the App Store, despite the fact that the developers submitted all the necessary documents. The application appeared on the marketplace a month later.
Later, Apple announced that it would remove the application of the social network Damus from the App Store due to the presence of bitcoin donations. Later, the company changed its decision, but now users will not be able to send tips and donations to authors of articles in cryptocurrency.
