According to Gnosis’ Lukas Schor, Apple has prohibited the company’s mobile app because it can display NFTs.
Apple has spent the day at its annual event introducing gleaming new iPads and iPhones. However, there is a war going on behind the scenes over what people can put on those gadgets.
Apple, according to Lukas Schor, head of product development at Gnosis Safe, is preventing the release of his company’s Ethereum wallet. What’s the reason? It not only assists users in managing custody of their crypto monies but also allows them to examine other digital assets, specifically NFTs.
NFTs are blockchain-based tokens (often on Ethereum) that represent a deed to a certain virtual or physical asset. They can be purchased, sold, or exchanged. Because NFTs are tokens, they are being integrated into wallets so that consumers may explore the virtual collectibles and art linked to the deeds.
The inclusion of NFTs into Gnosis Safe is causing issues with Apple, which questioned earlier this month whether the updated version of the program could be used to store NFTs, according to an Apple communication given by Schor. Schor claims that NFTs were previously integrated into the app earlier this year and that the most recent upgrade was about linking a hard wallet to the Gnosis Safe. However, since the topic had been raised, Gnosis responded that users can, in fact, keep their own NFTs on the app.
“We noticed that your app includes or accesses paid digital content, services, or functionality by means other than in-app purchases, which is not appropriate for the App Store.”
In response to follow-up messages attempting to resolve the issue, Apple App Store stated that Gnosis should delete the feature. “Apple does not allow apps, particularly wallets, to display NFTs if they are not purchased through in-app purchases,” stated an App Store reviewer. As a result, while you can buy NFTs using an app on your Apple phone, you cannot store NFTs acquired elsewhere.
Apple has yet to react to a request for comment from Decrypt, but the accusation is consistent with the tech behemoth, which is known for maintaining tight control over its platforms—sometimes, critics believe, to block competition. Apple recently lost a dispute against Epic Games in which a judge decided that the company could not prohibit external payment methods on its devices.
It’s not the first problem crypto wallets have encountered in their interactions with Apple. Trust Wallet claims it withdrew the decentralized application browser from version 6.0 of its iOS app in June because such blockchain-based applications, by definition, do not adhere to Apple’s code rules. Similarly, the imToken wallet withdrew a featured dapps list last week, citing an App Store policy stating that apps “should not attempt to expand or expose native platform APIs to third-party software.” There were no such issues with any app on Android.
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