On November 12, 2018, Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, spoke to students at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi, India.
Anushree Fadnavis | Reuters
On Tuesday, the creators of the decentralized social messaging app Damus, supported by Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, warned that Apple might take down their app from the App Store in the next two weeks.
Damus said in a tweet that Apple The ban is being contemplated due to the messaging app’s connection with the Lightning Network, a payment system that enables users to exchange bitcoin directly within the network without the use of another application. These particular payments are referred to as “zaps” on Nostr, the platform which Damus operates on.
The decision could potentially hinder a proposal aimed at making bitcoin more user-friendly and capable of serving as a hassle-free global digital currency.
Damus expressed in a tweet that Apple is concerned about the potential usage of zaps by content creators to market and sell digital content on its platform.
Damus posted a picture of a notification from the Apple App Store review which stated that Apple had observed that their app permits users to send “tips” to digital content creators using a method that is not through in-app purchases.
Apple has a well-established past of forbidding app creators from utilizing in-app payments to sell extra content or add-ons, except if those payments are processed by Apple, who receives a 30% portion.
However, Damus noted that Apple is not correctly interpreting the function of zaps.
Dorsey, who holds the position of CEO at a payments company, is also involved in other ventures. Block (formerly Square), tweeted The paragraph states that there is a group of people who are expressing their support for Damus. They believe that the tech giant, Apple, is not fully comprehending the function and purpose of a specific feature. They are urging the CEO, Tim Cook, to rethink their decision of removing Damus from the App Store.
Dorsey emphasized the significance of it for the future of the internet, stating that it has the potential to include people worldwide in the economy, bypassing traditional barriers.
Dorsey is a supporter of cryptocurrencies, while Block has taken significant risks in the cryptocurrency market. These risks include the development of a system that assists individuals in “mining” bitcoin, which involves running computer programs that consume a large amount of resources to verify bitcoin transactions and generate new coins.
In another tweet Damus mentioned that Apple got in touch with the team and “arranged a phone call to further discuss the importance of zaps.”
Apple did not provide an immediate response to CNBC’s request for comment.
In December of last year, Dorsey gave a contribution of 14 bitcoins, which were valued at approximately $245,000 at that time, towards the development of Nostr. Nostr is a decentralized social media project with the goal of not being controlled by any specific individual or business. Users of Nostr have the ability to keep their identities on various Nostr-supported apps such as Damus and also trade bitcoin amongst themselves using the Lightning network.
Dorsey, a co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, has been advocating for decentralized applications as the future of social media. In this new era, users can freely express their thoughts without being bound by the rules and regulations set by social media platforms.
Many of these platforms lack algorithms that suggest specific content, which has been a source of dissatisfaction for some Twitter users. They have expressed concerns about seeing less relevant content in the “For You” section ever since Elon Musk stepped in. Additionally, these platforms do not advertise nor gather and sell user data, which are traditional methods through which social networks generate revenue.
Currently, Dorsey is supporting the Bluesky messaging app. This app uses the decentralized AT Protocol for its networking technology. While Bluesky is still limited to invitation-only users, it has gained popularity as people leave Twitter due to increasing hate speech and bugs. However, it is still much smaller than the messaging app that was purchased by Tesla CEO Musk last autumn.
Watch Twitter struggles with providing adequate coverage of Ron DeSantis’ announcement of his candidacy.
