SNEAK PEEK
- Critics have argued that Apple’s latest move is beneficial only for oncoming crypto-native competitors.
- Young projects as well as platforms are forced to confine their functionality in-app to avoid the 30% commission.
- Actual costs to developers at times goes beyond the 30% commission.
NFT application developers along with others have expressed hesitation towards a decision by Apple which states regulating a 30% commission on non-fungible tokens that are sold via applications on its marketplace.
Based on a report, Apple is enabling the purchase and selling of NFTs via apps that are listed on its marketplace. However, it will charge a standard commission of 30% on in-app purchases.
The news has not been received happily by some on the grounds of being overpriced, especially, in comparison to many standard marketplace commissions that charge a commission of only 2.5%.
Florian Mueller, a tech blogger, has termed the ‘app tax’ to be “abusive but consistent,” whereas, Tim Sweeney, Epic Games CEO, shared on Twitter that the giant is crushing one more budding technology.
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. https://t.co/4KChp6jtFZ
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) September 23, 2022
Sweeney has argued that commission rates by Apple are in no way developer-friendly and offer negligible advantage in terms of industry’s growth.
Things turned pretty serious when Magic Eden, the Solana NFT market, withdrew its service from the App stores owing to the latest policy though Apple was willing to reduce the commission to 15%. As of now, the app is still there on the app store.
Other NFT markets listed on the App store have restricted functionality as a result of the costly commission. Also, there is this challenge of being pushed to carry out transactions in US dollars over crypto, which is risky since crypto markets are quite volatile.
CEO of Limit Break, Gabriel Leydon, has appreciated the decision saying that now an ETH wallet can be placed in mobile games welcoming more than 1 billion players. He further shared that he would happily give Apple the 30%.
Companies battling for commissions with Apple is nothing new. Reportedly, Epic Games has filed legal proceedings since Fortnite, its flagship game, was removed from the App Store last year in August.
Magic Eden, OpenSea and Rarible are some of the leading marketplace apps on the App store. In terms of markets in crypto trading applications, they include Coinbase Wallet, Binance and Crypto.com.
