Apple Integrates Bitcoin Into Apple Pay
The Chinese Incentive
China in many ways (not least through mining), is home to bitcoin and Chinese investment has been widely recognized as the leading factor in many of the recent price rallies. And if there is one market in the world where Apple is vying for dominance, it’s the Chinese market. After sales of the iPhone started to show signs of decline earlier this year, Apple will be nervously projecting their future role in the Chinese economy.This decline will put pressure on the tech giant to find news ways to innovate and
This decline will put pressure on the tech giant to find news ways to innovate and re-engage their Chinese audience. With bitcoin adoption and awareness being highest in China, the possibility that Apple chooses to integrate bitcoin into their payments system may not be that unthinkable.
Appealing to Developing Nations
Steve Jobs famously sent an internal email in 2010 stating that he wanted to “explicitly lock customers in Apple’s ecosystem” , these customers are no longer those in the West, but increasingly those in the Eastern and developing nations.
Bitcoin is considered to be the currency of choice for the unbanked and those in developing nations rely on mobile currencies. If Apple wants to ‘lock’ customers of these rapidly growing market into their brand, then they need a solution for the unbanked. Integrating bitcoin into their Apple Pay offering could be an extremely shrewd play and one that would bring bitcoin to the mainstream. Russia Lifts Bitcoin Ban
It’s a sorry state of affairs for bitcoin in Russia; many of the ISPs have banned numerous bitcoin related websites and in February 2014, the Russian Central Bank was reported to have made bitcoin usage (as a substitute currency) illegal under Russian federal law. […]
