Apple Announces Native Custodial Lightning Wallet To Replace Wallet Of Satoshi
Bitcoin is ripping with no signs of slowing down as Apple announces that they will be adding a custodial lightning wallet to the Apple Wallet in order to allow users to use Bitcoin. They also announced that the app store would begin accepting Bitcoin as payment for applications. This marks the first time the tech giant has been openly friendly to the only cryptocurrency of relevance, and now there is speculation that the company will be friendlier to Bitcoin going forward and may even add it the company treasury. Apple's decision will mean that billions of iPhone users will now have default access to Bitcoin services on their phone, marking a major step forward for adoption.
Tim Cook announced the news in a press conference by saying, "Apple has always been a big fan of the cypherpunk movement. We've always had a commitment to closed source code, and want to collect as much user data as possible. People are transacting so much on lightning, there's a lot of user data we can collect by providing custodial lightning solutions to our customers. We are fully committed to privacy and will talk about privacy in our advertisements as even though we collect the data, we only use the data internally to manipulate human behavior."
Apple has threatened to remove applications like Damus from the app store, and the reason was likely that the company did not want any competition for their new lightning wallet. Apple has been accused of anti-competitive practices before and this is just another clear example of it. It is unclear if other phone manufacturers like Samsung and Google are going to follow suit at this time as both companies are likely waiting to see how Apple's new wallet is received.
Apple has been trying to advertise their brand as carbon neutral and environmentally friendly, but this narrative is likely to be thrown out as each Bitcoin transaction uses at least 1 pool of water, and more energy than Elizabeth Warren's mansion. The company will likely try to offset Bitcoin's carbon/water usage in creative ways, but will likely be difficult as Bitcoin adoption on IOS is likely to explode.
This news really solidifies that Bitcoin is in a bull market, and that institutional adoption is growing.
