This seems like a consistent application of existing in-app purchase rules: purchasing a digital good to enjoy within the app requires IAP support for everyone else, so why not Coinbase? It's not clear (to me) that Apple is doubling down or strengthening the rules here.
If anything, I suspect that Coinbase intentionally violated the rules with this update so that it can sign on with Epic and Twitter in the fight against Apple.
So online banking apps should be charged 30% of forex transactions as well, right? Either way the whole comission thing is plain stupid. Maybe paying for app review & download but why for transactions?
But Stocks and Currencies aren't technically a digital good, they are partial ownership of a company or a hard currency. A NFT is exactly the definition of a digital only good, seeing as how a large number of NFT use-cases are to replace / make portable in-app goods sold in online games / mobile apps, which all currently require IAP fees to purchase on mobile. So this is just Apple applying the same rules to NFTs that apply to purchasing items in mobile games.
Apple was never going to allow the blockchain to remove their 30% cut on these purely digital items, as much as crypto folks preached that the blockchain would remove us from the shackles of App Store IAP payments.
forex transaction fees, which is different from forex transaction value.
yeah arguably if apple wanted to say "you're doing a forex trade in app, TD Ameritrade makes $10 in fees on that $20k transaction, we deserve $3 of that, and it needs to be paid via our IAP scheme" that's a consistent application of their rules at least.
again though, coinbase's PR department is doing what PR departments do, they've got you talking like coinbase would be charged 30% of the whole transaction and that's not actually what Apple is saying here... just like it turns out Qualcomm may not have been entirely honest about ARM's licensing changes and many of the specifics of EVGA's complaints are highly misleading or specific to their (atypical) business model, despite a generally-correct thrust.
Like, kinda funny that grown-ass adults don't understand that a literal PR department might not always be presenting the situation entirely fairly... and this is a business community we're discussing that in, no less. You need to apply critical thinking about why someone might be saying things now, and why they're saying them in that particular way... they're happy to lead you into a wrongful conclusion even if they themselves haven't said anything technically wrong: that is the conclusion they intended for you to draw and you consumed the information uncritically and you did draw that conclusion. They walked you right down the garden path there, give that PR guy a raise.
Just like Sony can argue for app-store openness on Apple's platforms but argue they shouldn't have to open their own platform to competitors too... they want to keep their 30% cut but force their competitors to give up theirs. And no, consoles are not sold at a loss anymore, PS5 hit hardware profitability around 6 months after launch...
For anyone who understands how NFTs and blockchains work, this is clearly not possible. Apple’s proprietary In-App Purchase system does not support crypto so we couldn’t comply even if we tried.
This is akin to Apple trying to take a cut of fees for every email that gets sent over open Internet protocols.
Since Apple's App Store is the only practical way to distribute apps on Apple devices, there isn't really a difference. The fact is that the owner of an apple devices has no control over their device.
I don't think that's a reasonable interpretation of the current rules, though. Apple doesn't (yet...) demand a 30% cut when you buy stocks via an app on your iphone.
This doesn't make sense because we can buy and sell crypto from Coinbase, Uphold, even Cash app right from our phones. We buy crypto and send crypto, and that has its own fees associated with it. Why does apple allow any app that support buying and selling crypto?
> And I think there’s no law or regulation that would forbid them from doing that.
They're lucky that the US has the particular form of "democracy" that they do, because I suspect the current regulations aren't exactly "the will of the people".
I read their thread before my comment because the title on this submission was pretty inflammatory. Their tendentious argument is exactly what made me think this was a trial balloon.
so what gives? I think someone is lying here. Maybe even bad enough someone could get fired if this doesn't get turned around. And if that's the case, it seems plausible to me that someone looked at 30% of "their" revenue going to Apple and just said fuck it.
Coinbase is facilitating purchasing between third parties. Do you have to pay 30% Apple tax when purchasing things in the e-bay app on an iPhone? (I honestly don't know, but these seem equivalent to me)
“Digital” goods is the differentiator. ebay, amazon and the like can sell physical goods without giving a cut. It is why you can’t buy kindle books in the amazon app, they would have to give apple a cut.
When you buy an NFT using the Coinbase wallet, you aren't buying it from Coinbase, you're buying it from some other random person. The Coinbase wallet is only being used to facilitate a person-to-person transaction, and view personal NFT collections.
It has been claimed elsewhere that coinbase charges transaction fees for these, i don’t know if that is true or not but if it is it does not seem to be an inconsistent application of the rules. It would be the same as buying a kindle edition from an independent publisher through amazon’s iOS app, amazon takes a cut so they have to pay up. I am not defending the policy just not clear to me this is an inconsistent application.
They would still take a cut. If the transaction is still happening in the Coinbase app then it is an in-app payment. It is still the transaction of a digital good.
It would be 30% of the ebay fee, I suppose. That would be wild though. Would banks be paying 30% of their account fees that are related to actions taken on the iphone?
Should apple also take 30% of every Venmo transaction I make? If I use my iphone to do a check deposit to my bank account, should apple take 30% of that?
> This seems like a consistent application of existing in-app purchase rules…
Exactly, the dumb/risky thing to do would be to make a special exception for Coinbase. This is no different from a consumer buying Robux to spend on a 3rd-party game.
This would only be comparable if Coinbase sold BaseBux through the app or something, which gave access to features within the app.
This is more like your stock broker app letting you buy a stock, although "cryptocurrencies aren't securities, they're speculative assets". So maybe more like buying art via an app.
If anything, I suspect that Coinbase intentionally violated the rules with this update so that it can sign on with Epic and Twitter in the fight against Apple.