Apple's new Tap to Pay on iPhone feature raises hopes of on-device crypto transactions in the near future

iPhone users have been able to pay for goods and services using Apple Pay for years; now, the Cupertino giant has effectively announced that this facility is about to be extended to sellers as well. The OEM has outlined plans to roll the feature necessary to do so out "later this year", albeit to merchants in the United States only.

Tap to Pay on iPhone does pretty much what it says on the tin: the acceptance of payments using nothing more than a compatible mobile device from Apple. While companies such as Squareup may not be overjoyed to see it coming, another type of community may welcome its advent.

Apple's announcement (also amplified by Tim Cook today (February 9, 2022) on Twitter) has already led to online theories that it could also bring payments with crypto to the iPhone. This is because Apple has stated Tap to Pay on iPhone can be used with "Apple Pay, their contactless credit or debit card, or other digital wallet" on the buyer's side.

However, Apple has yet to clarify whether this eligibility truly extends to crypto wallets or not. Regardless, the adoption of Tap to Pay on iPhone requires platforms to support the transactions in question, and only one has signed up to do so to date: Stripe.

Nevertheless, with assurances of security, privacy and user-agnosticism equivalent to that of Apple Pay thanks to the iPhone Secure Element, some merchants just might be glad to ditch their EPOS systems for this new and trendy method instead.

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