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Apple Takes Flak For Restrictive New NFT Rules

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Apple is known to take advantage of it’s power positioning in the mobile software world. However, Apple has been quietly restrictive with limited public-facing perspective around blockchain-related technology including crypto and NFTs. The NFT momentum has changed that in recent months, despite a broad crypto bear market, and has led Apple to include policy changes to address NFTs directly – and those changes aren’t especially NFT-friendly.

Apples Policy Additions… Restrictions May Apply

Speculation began in late September that the dominant tech company was opening its doors to NFT-based apps in the App Store. That led to mixed reviews: it’s undoubtedly positive for NFT enthusiasts to see major tech companies addressing them, but Apples exorbitant ~30% fee was largely believed within NFT communities to be unsustainable, undesirable and unreasonable.

Now that official policy changes are coming into effect, we’ll highlight three major pillars from the policy changes that summarize all you need to know:

  • NFTs are approved for “minting, listing and transferring:” Yes, you read that right. Apple has directly approved app utilization of NFTs, a major win for blockchain-based ecosystems that are building mobile platforms and services.
  • NFTs will be restricted to in-app purchases only: Now the less exciting part. As was believed in our report last month on the matter, Apple is restricting any sort of financial transactions to live within it’s in-app functionality – which means that it’s ~30% collection fees will apply. No external links, no buttons routing to external sources, and no directing consumers for purchases outside the app. This has been a long point of contention for major parties even in web2, such as Epic Games, who disputed that Fortnite purchases should be exempt from the exorbitant Apple fees (albeit with limited success).
  • NFT ownership in-app cannot “unlock features or functionality” within any app: The restrictions continue. One of the biggest selling points around many NFT collections and projects will be left to the wayside. With this policy adjustment, there are no mobile features or functionality that can be gated through NFTs in-app, as Apple likely looks to limit NFT impacts within apps.

In all, while we can praise Apple for their willingness to address NFTs directly, most community members throughout the NFT landscape are left with a lot to be desired out of the company’s latest policy changes.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has been a dominant name in tech for many years, and its App Store dominance and stranglehold over fee structure has long contributed to it’s positioning in the mobile marketplace. | Source: NASDAQ:AAPL on TradingView.com The Big Picture

Despite a heavy hand, seeing Apple acknowledge NFTs in this fashion is still noteworthy. It comes in the midst of substantial tech and social media dialogue around crypto and NFTs; across social, buzz has been floating around with major channels this past week, most particularly around Twitter and Reddit.

Twitter is reportedly working on a crypto wallet product for users, while
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