- Digital currency inventors found a way around Apple’s recent crackdown on Damus, a Bitcoin-friendly social media platform, reintroducing a tipping feature using an innovative system named “Zapple Pay.”
- The brainchild of independent Bitcoin developers Ben Carman and Paul Miller, Zapple Pay sidesteps Apple’s prohibitions by creatively using emojis to initiate Bitcoin transactions.
- While Damus and its newly integrated feature receive vocal support from the Bitcoin community, Apple’s suggestion to replace the system with their mobile payment service, Apple Pay, was declined by Damus.
The technology sphere has been electrified as Bitcoin innovators prove they are not to be easily defeated. In the face of a contentious move by Apple against Damus, a social platform fond of Bitcoin, the tech giant’s limitations have been artfully sidestepped. The Bitcoin brainiacs have managed to reintroduce a tipping function that Apple had previously knocked out.
Last month, Apple, in a display of its might, coerced Damus into deactivating its Bitcoin tipping feature, dubbed “zap.” Apple viewed this function as an unauthorized sale of digital media, and its existence threatened Damus’ place in the App Store.
But the plot thickened on July 6th, when a fresh contender entered the ring – “Zapple Pay.” This was the ingenious creation of independent Bitcoin developers Ben Carman and Paul Miller, who found a clever loophole to bypass Apple’s prohibitions. They turned to emojis, permitted on posts, to let users tip each other again. The duo is also the brains behind Mutiny wallet, a browser-operating self-custodial Bitcoin wallet.
The ingenuity of Zapple Pay combines a user’s Nostr public key (npub), an emoji, and a wallet link. Nostr, shorthand for “notes and other stuff transmitted by relays,” is key to the workaround. A specific emoji response to a post triggers a zap transaction to that post, neatly sidestepping Apple’s restrictions.
In the backdrop, the Bitcoin community is rallying around Damus, with advocates like ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, now leading the Bitcoin-focused Block, publicly backing the developers and the Damus platform. Damus’ original creator, William Casarin, clarified he didn’t have any part in the creation of Zapple Pay.
Notably, Apple had proposed integrating their mobile payment service, Apple Pay, as a replacement for the “zap” feature, an idea that Damus decided to ignore.
Tech Giants Under Fire Over Crypto Policies
Apple has found itself amidst a storm, accused by cryptocurrency industry players of creating an unwelcoming environment. Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, slammed Apple for stifling their innovation efforts by disallowing certain cryptocurrency features on the App Store. Apple’s silence on this criticism adds more fuel to the fire.
Further complicating matters for Apple, user complaints emerged about Siri, its voice assistant, erroneously showing Bitcoin Cash prices as Bitcoin prices. While later tests countered this claim, the issue nonetheless highlighted the ongoing tension between Apple and the crypto world.
Meanwhile, Google, like Apple, is facing lawmakers’ scrutiny, specifically for allowing potentially fraudulent cryptocurrency apps on its platform. With both tech juggernauts remaining tight-lipped on their official cryptocurrency stance, the focus is now on how they handle crypto-related risks on their platforms. A comprehensive response is expected by August 10th to Senator Sherrod Brown’s inquiries.
