A big leap for crypto

• Apple is close to enabling contactless NFC transactions on iPhones, with developers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the UK and the US initially taking advantage of the feature.

• According to Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of Circle, this could be a huge opportunity for iPhone users to enable payments in cryptocurrencies or USDC.

Apple has made an exciting announcement that could allow iPhone users to integrate crypto payments. According to the upcoming upgrade publicly announced An official blog post states that developers could provide contactless NFC transactions on iOS 18.1 and later via Secure Element in the iPhone apps. With a successful implementation, developers could offer several features such as contactless in-app transactions for in-store payments and others.

The new NFC and Secure Element (SE) APIs will enable developers to offer contactless in-app transactions for in-store payments, car keys, public transport, corporate IDs, student IDs, front door keys, hotel keys, merchant loyalty and loyalty cards, and event tickets. Government IDs will also be supported in the future.

Requirements for this new solution

Developers who want to integrate this new solution into their apps must first check three boxes: enter into a commercial agreement with Apple, request NFC and SE authorization, and pay all relevant fees.

For now, the NFC and SE APIs will be made available to developers in seven countries – Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the UK and the US. To initiate transactions, users must open the app directly or make it a standard contactless app and then double-click the side button.

After weighing all the benefits and all the associated implications, Apple claims to have ensured that NFC contactless transactions are fully secured without compromising privacy. To explain, the announcement revealed that NFC and SE use the Secured Element, a certified chip designed to store sensitive information on devices.

What Apple’s latest in-app NFC integration means for crypto

Immediately after this announcement Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of Circle, retweeted it with the caption: “Tap to pay with USDC on iPhones is coming soon. Wallet developers, start your engines.”

Tap USDC to pay on iPhones soon. Wallet developers, start your engines. https://t.co/D6lsj4saMS – Jeremy Allaire – jda.eth / jdallaire.sol (@jerallaire) 14 August 2024

In addition to this statement, Allaire clarified that Circle and Apple are not collaborating. In his view, this groundbreaking development could open doors for blockchain payment features in iPhones. This implies that there could be a point-of-sale system for blockchain addresses, an area for entering payment amounts in USDC, and a user verification feature.

According to him, this upgrade could provide immeasurable support for NFTs, tickets as well as stablecoins like EURC. Moreover, he believes that the joint operation of these high-performance features and the low-fee blockchain networks could serve as a gateway for USDC payments from merchants to realize their full potential.

So, yes, wallet developers should start using the latest Apple iOS SDKs that support this and prepare their apps for USDC Tap to Pay. And yes, PoS hardware/software companies should provide firmware updates so they can send/receive these NFC instructions and work with their payment processors to ensure those companies upgrade to support native USDC settlement (many PSPs and processors already do this).

In response, a crypto trader named Marty Party called this the biggest breakthrough in cryptocurrency adoption.

IMO: This is the biggest advancement in cryptocurrency adoption ever. Few understand the implications of this success.@SolanaPay @Circle $USDC @Apple @Phantom https://t.co/uWYDjQsazlhttps://t.co/VjDlXGjSVr https://t.co/RIEM7I07vH pic.twitter.com/UGXNtF14ZK— MartyParty (@martypartymusic) 14 August 2024

Apple’s relationship with the crypto industry has been quite positiveas it recently entered into a partnership with VeWorld Wallet, as previously reportedIn October 2023 we will also highlighted Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak’s statement that Bitcoin is superior to gold.