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Tim Cook Says Apple Is Looking into Cryptocurrency

66 points by jonbaer 5y ago

PragmaticPulp 5y ago
From another (non-paywalled) article: https://www.macrumors.com/2021/11/09/tim-cook-owns-cryptocurrency-been-interested/ https://www.macrumors.com/2021/11/09/tim-cook-owns-cryptocur... > Despite the company's lack of "immediate" plans to get involved in the world of cryptocurrency, Cook did say that it's something Apple is "looking into." Cook said that Apple has no plans to invest in cryptocurrency given his belief that "people [don't] buy Apple stock to get exposure to crypto. So if they want to do that, they can you know, invest directly in crypto through other means." > Speaking on the growing popularity of NFTs, Cook says it too is also "interesting" but that it will "take a while to play out in a way that is for the mainstream person." Any tech company that might be in a position to profit off of providing crypto-related services is, of course, going to keep tabs on it. But this does seem like journalists are reaching deep to twist Cook's words into the opposite of what he said. Crypto headlines get clicks regardless of the underlying content.
- paulgb 5y ago
  Agreed, in particular this seems like trying very hard not to say something negative without actually saying anything positive: > Speaking on the growing popularity of NFTs, Cook says it too is also "interesting" but that it will "take a while to play out in a way that is for the mainstream person."
  - floatboth 5y ago
    It's so ridiculous that all these huge bosses of corporate America feel the need to not say anything negative. So far only Valve has responded relatively well to this bullshit.
    - quitit 5y ago
      Valve is a private company which gives them a lot more freedom in their statements. Apple is a public company, their statements have real and sometimes severe consequences. Eg See the sorts of messes Elon Musk gets himself into
peakaboo 5y ago
The iCoin - Completely revolutionary digital coin, 400% better than bitcoin.
- nyxaiur 5y ago
  the opportunist and misleading comment without adding value to the discussion. It's hard to read rules before shit posting or trying to flamebait.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- here1z 5y ago
  Trade up your iCoin 12 - for 0.85x credit on iCoin 13. Terms apply.
- lucisferre 5y ago
  Metal coins are already 400% better than Bitcoin so...
  - hexnuts 5y ago
    In what way? Rhodium is currently trading around 13,977.26 USD an ounce, where a single bitcoin is currently worth 66,787.30. That means bitcoin is almost 480% better if you equate 1 oz to 1 bitcoin.
    - mostly_harmless 5y ago
      This is a dumb comparison. An ounce as a unit is arbitrary. A Bitcoin as a unit is arbitrary (but arguably less so). I'm in a metric country so lets use that. 1 kg of Rhodium is trading around $493,189 vs $66,787 per Bitcoin. Rhodium is 738% better if you equate 1 kg to 1 bitcoin! Wow, put all your money into precious metals!
- BrianB 5y ago
  With 30% mining fees per transaction
bluecalm 5y ago
Let's hope they come to the conclusion that centralized pegged to USD Apple tokens beat cryptocurrencies in all important metrics. Then let's hope they actually implement it and compete with banks and credit card companies. We really need fast, reliable and cheaper system to transfer money and pay for stuff. It would be nice if the steward of that was based in 1st world country and subject to oversight. It would also be very nice if they could iterate over inefficient blockchain into something actually suitable for the task like an SQL database.
- drcongo 5y ago
  I'm intrigued by this post, because in most of the world we already have a fast, reliable and cheap system to transfer money and pay for stuff with actual money via banks. I'm not sure if the US is unique in not having this, but asking for all this to be based in a "1st world country" when there are plenty of 3rd world countries who have vastly superior banking systems to the US is kinda weird.
  - bluecalm 5y ago
    We don't have a system to pay for things. Bank transfers abroad are also a huge pain. You never know how much you're going to pay in fees. Every time you buy something with a credit/debit card or PayPal or any other payment provider the transaction costs are at least 3% and often much higher. Banks also exploit currency conversion at every possible step sometimes incurring ridiculous double conversion fees. Even normal conversion is often very costly. It's a big chunk of online economy existing players extract rent from. While there are alternative systems (like instant bank transfers) in many countries they don't work when you buy something from another country even if both are in EU for example.
    - TacticalCoder 5y ago
      > You never know how much you're going to pay in fees. Indeed. People who say everything works fine because that one time they had zero issues have no idea what it's like to deal with EUR / JPY / USD / AED transfers on a semi-regular basis. If you do it all the time, you may have found something that works all the time. If you do it once, you may have been lucky. But if you do it two or three times a year, you're in for a world of hurt, surprise fees, delays, cancelled transfers, etc. You cannot have "not noticed this" or say "I never had any surprise". Worse: if you're working with the EUR but outside the eurozone (like Andorra and Monaco, which both use the EUR but aren't in the EU) you can have very nasty surprises. You better read and re-read any fineprints because you sign any bank account opening because you can find yourself paying 2% + fixed fees + tax on the fees on every transfer to/from the country. Very often all these are hidden from the consumers and the burden is put on the businesses. I was in Andorra, I bought a bike for my kid: seller was doing 5% discount if I was paying cash... And it's not to dodge taxes (taxes are maximum 10% there for any business): it's not to "cheat" 0.5% on the sale by not reporting it. It's because the banks/payment processors take a very heavy cut. Now there may be solutions but it's something you have to actively look into. It's not just "I open a bank account in that country, another one in that country and then everything works magically". Funnily enough: at some point using EUR->crypto then crypto->AED (just an example) may turn out to be cheaper than doing EUR->AED.
rvz 5y ago
Finally. It has been definitively admitted as I have speculated before [0] and along side with this recent job posting [1]. Unsurprising how Apple (even Tim Cook) waits for the whole industry first before entering in themselves to 'get it right'. It's likely they are going to partner with a leading cryptocurrency exchange or a bank that uses CBDCs to use cryptocurrencies all from Apple Wallet. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29065134 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29065134 [1] https://www.ft.com/content/2b30e69d-6662-40e8-9735-eaea8662906e https://www.ft.com/content/2b30e69d-6662-40e8-9735-eaea86629...
cblconfederate 5y ago
It s a small step from apple pay to applecoin, they do have tons of cash stored around the world, and dont really know what to do with it. Google has the same But it is interesting when it becomes a clash of cultures of new and old. Will bitcoiners betray their principles for apple's golden cages? Coming soon, to a theater near you
- trident5000 5y ago
  Its a step that's never going to happen because its a terrible idea.
mortenjorck 5y ago
I just can't see anything blockchain in Apple's DNA. The decentralized nature of the technology doesn't fit with the Apple way of vertical integration in pursuit of the most seamless, optimized, low-overhead and high-margin product experience possible. This doesn't mean Apple will never adopt interoperability with crypto platforms, just as they adopt other industry standards, but crypto is unlikely to ever be the focus of a new Apple product offering.
- trident5000 5y ago
  Theres not some grand crypto plan, they probably will just accept them in apple pay one day. Maybe some nft related things. Thats about it.
  - spicybright 5y ago
    Proof of ownership of a device is another.
    - Negitivefrags 5y ago
      How would that be done in any more useful way than it is right now?
    - root_axis 5y ago
      No. This meme should really die, cryptocurrency does not allow for "proof of ownership" in any way.
      - Tenoke 5y ago
        While I am not sure it provides enough real benefits 'does not allow it in any way' is clearly wrong. A company can decide that they acknowledge ownership based on whatever entry they originally put on the blockchain (with or without the ability for a user to trade it), perhaps tied to a private key built into the device or belonging to the user (but then there's a risk they lose their key).
laserlight 5y ago
Apple is one of the largest companies in the world. The bar for “looking into it” is pretty low for giants. It would be news if they weren’t looking into it. This statement doesn’t mean Apple has a business plan with cryptocurrency, let alone that they will go for it.
joshstrange 5y ago
People in this thread are mainly talking about Apple introducing their own coin but I wonder if the more realistic move is to support Crypto in their Wallet app. They could make a pretty compelling argument for it being a safe space to store Crypto but at the end of the day I'm not sure what this would gain them.
bob229 5y ago
Then he’s an idiot
bobobob420 5y ago
NFT are used for money laundering. It makes money laundering very easy. Anyone who seriously subscribed to NFT for jpegs are kidding themselves.

66 points by jonbaer 5y ago

From another (non-paywalled) article: https://www.macrumors.com/2021/11/09/tim-cook-owns-cryptocurrency-been-interested/ https://www.macrumors.com/2021/11/09/tim-cook-owns-cryptocur... > Despite the company's lack of "immediate" plans to get involved in the world of cryptocurrency, Cook did say that it's something Apple is "looking into." Cook said that Apple has no plans to invest in cryptocurrency given his belief that "people [don't] buy Apple stock to get exposure to crypto. So if they want to do that, they can you know, invest directly in crypto through other means." > Speaking on the growing popularity of NFTs, Cook says it too is also "interesting" but that it will "take a while to play out in a way that is for the mainstream person." Any tech company that might be in a position to profit off of providing crypto-related services is, of course, going to keep tabs on it. But this does seem like journalists are reaching deep to twist Cook's words into the opposite of what he said. Crypto headlines get clicks regardless of the underlying content.

paulgb 5y ago
Agreed, in particular this seems like trying very hard not to say something negative without actually saying anything positive: > Speaking on the growing popularity of NFTs, Cook says it too is also "interesting" but that it will "take a while to play out in a way that is for the mainstream person."
- floatboth 5y ago
  It's so ridiculous that all these huge bosses of corporate America feel the need to not say anything negative. So far only Valve has responded relatively well to this bullshit.
  - quitit 5y ago
    Valve is a private company which gives them a lot more freedom in their statements. Apple is a public company, their statements have real and sometimes severe consequences. Eg See the sorts of messes Elon Musk gets himself into

peakaboo 5y ago

The iCoin - Completely revolutionary digital coin, 400% better than bitcoin.

nyxaiur 5y ago
the opportunist and misleading comment without adding value to the discussion. It's hard to read rules before shit posting or trying to flamebait.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
here1z 5y ago
Trade up your iCoin 12 - for 0.85x credit on iCoin 13. Terms apply.
lucisferre 5y ago
Metal coins are already 400% better than Bitcoin so...
- hexnuts 5y ago
  In what way? Rhodium is currently trading around 13,977.26 USD an ounce, where a single bitcoin is currently worth 66,787.30. That means bitcoin is almost 480% better if you equate 1 oz to 1 bitcoin.
  - mostly_harmless 5y ago
    This is a dumb comparison. An ounce as a unit is arbitrary. A Bitcoin as a unit is arbitrary (but arguably less so). I'm in a metric country so lets use that. 1 kg of Rhodium is trading around $493,189 vs $66,787 per Bitcoin. Rhodium is 738% better if you equate 1 kg to 1 bitcoin! Wow, put all your money into precious metals!
BrianB 5y ago
With 30% mining fees per transaction

bluecalm 5y ago

Let's hope they come to the conclusion that centralized pegged to USD Apple tokens beat cryptocurrencies in all important metrics. Then let's hope they actually implement it and compete with banks and credit card companies. We really need fast, reliable and cheaper system to transfer money and pay for stuff. It would be nice if the steward of that was based in 1st world country and subject to oversight. It would also be very nice if they could iterate over inefficient blockchain into something actually suitable for the task like an SQL database.

drcongo 5y ago
I'm intrigued by this post, because in most of the world we already have a fast, reliable and cheap system to transfer money and pay for stuff with actual money via banks. I'm not sure if the US is unique in not having this, but asking for all this to be based in a "1st world country" when there are plenty of 3rd world countries who have vastly superior banking systems to the US is kinda weird.
- bluecalm 5y ago
  We don't have a system to pay for things. Bank transfers abroad are also a huge pain. You never know how much you're going to pay in fees. Every time you buy something with a credit/debit card or PayPal or any other payment provider the transaction costs are at least 3% and often much higher. Banks also exploit currency conversion at every possible step sometimes incurring ridiculous double conversion fees. Even normal conversion is often very costly. It's a big chunk of online economy existing players extract rent from. While there are alternative systems (like instant bank transfers) in many countries they don't work when you buy something from another country even if both are in EU for example.
  - TacticalCoder 5y ago
    > You never know how much you're going to pay in fees. Indeed. People who say everything works fine because that one time they had zero issues have no idea what it's like to deal with EUR / JPY / USD / AED transfers on a semi-regular basis. If you do it all the time, you may have found something that works all the time. If you do it once, you may have been lucky. But if you do it two or three times a year, you're in for a world of hurt, surprise fees, delays, cancelled transfers, etc. You cannot have "not noticed this" or say "I never had any surprise". Worse: if you're working with the EUR but outside the eurozone (like Andorra and Monaco, which both use the EUR but aren't in the EU) you can have very nasty surprises. You better read and re-read any fineprints because you sign any bank account opening because you can find yourself paying 2% + fixed fees + tax on the fees on every transfer to/from the country. Very often all these are hidden from the consumers and the burden is put on the businesses. I was in Andorra, I bought a bike for my kid: seller was doing 5% discount if I was paying cash... And it's not to dodge taxes (taxes are maximum 10% there for any business): it's not to "cheat" 0.5% on the sale by not reporting it. It's because the banks/payment processors take a very heavy cut. Now there may be solutions but it's something you have to actively look into. It's not just "I open a bank account in that country, another one in that country and then everything works magically". Funnily enough: at some point using EUR->crypto then crypto->AED (just an example) may turn out to be cheaper than doing EUR->AED.

rvz 5y ago

Finally. It has been definitively admitted as I have speculated before [0] and along side with this recent job posting [1]. Unsurprising how Apple (even Tim Cook) waits for the whole industry first before entering in themselves to 'get it right'. It's likely they are going to partner with a leading cryptocurrency exchange or a bank that uses CBDCs to use cryptocurrencies all from Apple Wallet. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29065134 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29065134 [1] https://www.ft.com/content/2b30e69d-6662-40e8-9735-eaea8662906e https://www.ft.com/content/2b30e69d-6662-40e8-9735-eaea86629...

cblconfederate 5y ago

It s a small step from apple pay to applecoin, they do have tons of cash stored around the world, and dont really know what to do with it. Google has the same But it is interesting when it becomes a clash of cultures of new and old. Will bitcoiners betray their principles for apple's golden cages? Coming soon, to a theater near you

trident5000 5y ago
Its a step that's never going to happen because its a terrible idea.

mortenjorck 5y ago

I just can't see anything blockchain in Apple's DNA. The decentralized nature of the technology doesn't fit with the Apple way of vertical integration in pursuit of the most seamless, optimized, low-overhead and high-margin product experience possible. This doesn't mean Apple will never adopt interoperability with crypto platforms, just as they adopt other industry standards, but crypto is unlikely to ever be the focus of a new Apple product offering.

trident5000 5y ago
Theres not some grand crypto plan, they probably will just accept them in apple pay one day. Maybe some nft related things. Thats about it.
- spicybright 5y ago
  Proof of ownership of a device is another.
  - Negitivefrags 5y ago
    How would that be done in any more useful way than it is right now?
  - root_axis 5y ago
    No. This meme should really die, cryptocurrency does not allow for "proof of ownership" in any way.
    - Tenoke 5y ago
      While I am not sure it provides enough real benefits 'does not allow it in any way' is clearly wrong. A company can decide that they acknowledge ownership based on whatever entry they originally put on the blockchain (with or without the ability for a user to trade it), perhaps tied to a private key built into the device or belonging to the user (but then there's a risk they lose their key).

laserlight 5y ago

Apple is one of the largest companies in the world. The bar for “looking into it” is pretty low for giants. It would be news if they weren’t looking into it. This statement doesn’t mean Apple has a business plan with cryptocurrency, let alone that they will go for it.

joshstrange 5y ago

People in this thread are mainly talking about Apple introducing their own coin but I wonder if the more realistic move is to support Crypto in their Wallet app. They could make a pretty compelling argument for it being a safe space to store Crypto but at the end of the day I'm not sure what this would gain them.

bob229 5y ago

Then he’s an idiot

bobobob420 5y ago

NFT are used for money laundering. It makes money laundering very easy. Anyone who seriously subscribed to NFT for jpegs are kidding themselves.