Many years Apple Pay was something common for Russian users. Thanks to this service, we almost forgot about cash and bank cards, being able to pay for purchases using iPhone or Apple Watch. Despite the fact that Apple has not officially disabled Apple Pay in Russia, you can no longer pay with them, regardless of the card you use. What if Cupertino allowed Bitcoin to be used as a financial source for its contactless payment service?
Apple is rumored to be adding Apple Pay directly supports bitcoin. She may announce this at the Bitcoin Conference 2022, which will be held in Miami from April 6 to 9. In this way, the Cupertino company can significantly influence the way the world accepts payments for purchases.
Apparently, we are talking about supporting real bitcoin accounts, and not multicurrency bank cards that automatically convert cryptocurrencies into fiat money at the time of payment. Moreover, Apple Pay already supports them since last year.
Apple Pay and Cryptocurrency
What’s the difference, you ask? And that Apple wants to do it on its own converting cryptocurrencies to fiat. You can read more about these concepts on the website 2bitcoins.ru. If in the case of cards, these operations were carried out either by exchanges or banking organizations, then with the direct support of bitcoins, Apple itself will be responsible for the transfer.
Why does she need this, it is clear and so. Firstly, these are cross-border payments, for which almost nothing needs to be paid. Secondly, reaching a new audience and, as a result, wider distribution of Apple Pay. And, thirdly, strengthening the company’s influence on the financial market.
However, just screw bitcoin payments to Apple Pay it is forbidden. Apple will either have to negotiate with some exchange or cryptocurrency payment service, or begin to fulfill this role on its own. The last option is too complicated. Therefore, most likely in Cupertino they will enlist the support of some service that is already on you with bitcoins.
The Cryptodaily publication names the Strike service as a likely partner for Apple. In fact, this is PayPal from the world of cryptocurrencies, which allows you to pay for purchases, as well as transfer and receive money around the world, bypassing the services of such services as Western Union, etc.
For Apple, cooperation with Strike is very beneficial. The service itself does not take a commission for payments and performs transactions almost instantly, which means that in this way you can bring Apple Pay to a whole new level. Even if Apple doesn’t make money from commissions now, the company will benefit much more from the increase in its influence in the long run.
What will happen to Apple
Support for Strike can be enlisted on equal terms, making it a full partner, or you can simply buy it. Moreover, the purchase is the preferred option. After all, then you can manage everything yourself.
In theory, this could help us bypass the sanctions and resume using Apple Pay in Russia. After all, most cryptocurrency transactions are not regulated by the state. However, in relation to the Apple payment service, they will most likely still be limited, so if the company does not allow us to use Apple Pay, then connecting bitcoins will not fundamentally change anything.
But having a platform for payments around the corner that is not actually regulated from the outside can be very useful to Apple itself. Indeed, according to Bloomberg, Apple has truly Napoleonic plans for the development of the financial market. The company is working on its own payment processing infrastructure, and Strike could become part of it.
This may mean that the company wants to become something like a bank itself. Perhaps not today, not tomorrow, and not even in a month. But she certainly has such ambitions. It is enough to look at how actively Cupertino is trying to develop this direction. Starting with Apple Pay, the company has successively launched a number of financial products such as the Apple Pay Cash transfer service, the Apple Card card service, and the Apple Pay Later installment purchase service.
The project has a symbolic name Breakout. That is, Apple actually wants to break out of the shackles of banks and other financial institutions, according to the rules of which it was forced to play earlier, in order to begin to steer in this area on its own. Will she succeed? Why not. The company’s client base has already been developed, and with financing, given its earnings, there will clearly be no problems. Now it’s up to the implementation.
