It seems that two tech giants are at war with each other and of course money is the subject. Apple has started collecting a 30 percent transaction tax on NFT transactions. Coinbase disagrees and has immediately decided to make it impossible to send NFTs in the mobile app.
Coinbase on the warpath
According to Coinbase, Apple’s demand to absorb 30 percent of transaction fees shows that they don’t understand the technology. “Apple’s claim is that a portion of the transaction fees required to send NFTs must go through their system so they can take 30 percent of that,” Coinbase said. According to the exchange platform, this is not possible, because the transactions run through the blockchain.
Incidentally, that depends entirely on the way Coinbase arranges the transactions. If they keep it completely internal and the transactions don’t touch the blockchain, then that would theoretically be possible. If the transactions actually go from blockchain wallet to blockchain wallet, then Coinbase also has nothing to say about those transaction costs and it is indeed impossible to send them to Apple.
Anyone who understands how NFTs and blockchains work understand that this is not possible. We now have to wait for a response from Apple, which is clearly antagonizing the industry. Incidentally, the crypto industry is not the only one feuding with Apple. Elon Musk also had a few days with the tech giant, because there were rumors that they wanted to remove Twitter from the app.
“Apple must be stopped”
More and more parties are expressing their dissatisfaction with the way Apple uses its power in the tech world. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, who has sometimes faced Apple in court, also says that the tech giant should be stopped.
Former YouTube executive and current Polygon Studios CEO Ryan Wyatt wholeheartedly agrees. He called Apple’s 30 percent tax on NFT transactions “criminal.” Wyatt is convinced that the ‘tax’ is at the expense of technological progress.
Coinbase says it hopes Apple’s decision was just a “mistake” and is open to further discussion. The exchange platform also believes that the 30 percent tax will make the mainstream adoption of NFTs more difficult.