Apple ‘watching cryptocurrency’, Apple Pay chief says
Will you use Apple Pay Cash?
Apple is “watching cryptocurrency” and thinks it is has interesting “long-term potential”, the company’s VP Apple Pay, Jennifer Bailey reportedly told CNN.
Applecoin a-go-go
It’s an interest that makes sense.
Apple’s long-held ambition is known to have been the replacement of almost everything in your wallet, from credit cards to keys to ID, and the company has moved a long, long way on this journey since I first heard whisper of this mission in 2007.
The evolution of cryptocurrency is certainly a story worth watching.
Not only has it made a lot of people very rich (and, to be totally honest, a longer list of people poor), but it is scaring governments, frightening banking and even has Facebook interested (which I wouldn’t touch unless the social network paid me in fiat).
Bitcoin, for example, has become the must-have go-too currency for the population of any economy that’s in free fall, as a way to preserve some asset value during a collapse.
How it applies
Apple’s ambitions will likely be simpler: Apple Pay, Apple Card, Apple Daily Cash, Apple Cash and more point to its vision, and a stateless cryptocurrency would most certainly assist it in those plans, and expedite payments across borders.
An Apple-branded banking system shorn of the regulatory requirements traditional banks must uphold would certainly help Cupertino cram a few more real life fiat dollars into its vast war chests.
Apple was speaking to CNN as part of a panel discussion concerning the future of Apple Pay.
The company now processes over a billion transactions each month and acceptance in U.S. stores has shot up from 3 to 70%, though the US remains a mobile payments laggard.
How do we tip?
Bailey also looked at one of the biggest demands from contactless users – ways to tip others.
For me, I like to purchase a UK title called the Big Issue and always try to leave tips, but moving to a contactless payments means I often have no cash on me.
Bailey confirmed Apple to be looking at this but to have no easy answers yet.
I can’t help but imagine a new capacity using an Apple ID to print out a unique QR code people could use to pay the owner of that code using Apple Pay Cash as one idea, but that latter service isn’t yet available.
But it seems the balkanization of the global financial system is set to continue.
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Your article is a more reasoned one that most on this topic. Personally I find crypto currencies totally uninteresting.
My own conclusion is I believe much the same as yours that this would be away for Apple to ’embrace and extend’ ever further so as to control ever more of the eco system.
By the way, I am surprised Jennifer Bailey is unaware of this – https://news.sky.com/story/london-buskers-first-in-world-to-be-paid-with-contactless-cards-11386774 and more specifically this – https://www.bigissue.com/latest/the-big-issue-partners-with-izettle-to-bring-contactless-payments-to-vendors/
She no longer has an excuse 🙂
In theory even an Apple Card could be used. (Here’s hoping it comes to the UK soon.)
My problem wit that — particularly (but not excessively) the Big Issue is that vendors are required to purchase their own device — and keep and maintain it — even though they are on the streets.
I think this underlines the real need to figure out imaginative solutions to ensure the most vulnerable members of society are not trapped on the other side of the digital divide. Or (better) do something to ensure they aren’t as vulnerable any more (such as employment opportunities, homes, support, counselling and more).
Though it is good that these sorts of solutions are emerging.