JUST IN - Elon Musk says Apple's intent to remove Damus off the app store for its #Bitcoin ⚡️ tipping feature is a "major concern."
"This is not a winning scenario."
Discussion
The policy behind this move by Apple is exactly the reason I have refused to invest my skillset in the applesphere. Apple has made some contributions toward open source over the years, but none of significance and only when it could benefit them.
Their target market is the kind of person that cares not about improving their computer knowledge, and thereby they have a captured audience. I never understand brand loyalty toward Apple on the part of so many tech-oriented. This anticompetitive walled-garden behavior is the basis of their product offerings, and is unlikely to change.
The argument that any crypto wallet or app where you can do crypto purchases violates policy isn't a mark of malfesance on the part of the app developer, but a shortsightedness of their policy.
Damus technically doesent perform any lightning payments from within the app, its only connected to a remote wallet and provides an interface to make a payment to another remote wallet. In many cases, the wallet is at WOS and GetAlby not in Damus. Neither is it trivial to set up, it requires use of more than one app and multiple online services just to be able to zap and be zapped.
To remove zaps from the app will render it immediately obsolete. From Damus's perspective, Apple is making a demand that is impossible to satisfy (if they need 30% of all transactions), and any would anyone want 1/3 of their zaps to go directly to Apple? Damus never actually touches any of the bitcoin, so Apple is either ignorant of these facts or they possibly are being told by people with guns or control of their credit or stock price they shall do this thing.