Damus tried to clarify that tips are not used to "unlock content," but to no avail.
Damus, a decentralized social media app built on the Nostr protocol, will be officially removed from the Apple App Store for failing to comply with its Bitcoin tipping service.
"It appears that we were removed from the App Store even after updating our app to make it clear that users do not unlock any digital content when they receive a tip," Damus said on Twitter on Monday. The company said it would appeal the decision because it objected to the "misuse" of the agreement.
Damus allows users to tip their favorite content creators through “zaps” (BTC transfers over Bitcoin’s Layer 2 Lightning Network). The app is built on the Nostr protocol and its functionality is reminiscent of the tipping service Twitter integrated in 2021, which included Lightning as a tipping method while the company is still led by Bitcoin bull Jack Dorsey.
Damus' message from Apple states that optional tipping and donations are allowed, but not if they are associated with receiving digital content. It states that "they must use in-app purchases in accordance with Guideline 3.1.1."
The denial was met with skepticism by Damus, Bitcoin supporters and tech leaders everywhere, including Jack Dorsey himself. “Hints do not unlock content,” he said. Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney responded to the company’s announcement, saying “Apple must be stopped.”
Dorsey has previously praised Nostr as one of only two “truly massively censorship-resistant technologies,” the other being Bitcoin.
When Damus received two weeks’ notice to revamp the tipping service earlier this month, he called Apple’s crackdown “pretty bad” given the timing. It came shortly before the company gave a presentation at the Oslo Freedom Forum on the importance of Lightning-based decentralized social networks.
Damus’ critics claim that Apple simply wants the company to “pay a 30% commission” on digital content sold on its platform. Damus, in contrast, claims that there is no “30%” or “cut” involved because the payment technology it provides is entirely peer-to-peer.
“If people can’t freely transact p2p on their platform, it will have a huge impact on the entire ecosystem of lightning-integrated applications,” Damus said last week.
