An Apple job ad has raised the intriguing prospect that the company may soon support crypto currency payments.
Apple has posted a vacancy for a “Business Development Manager – Alternative Payments”, which stipulates that candidates should have experience with handling crypto currency. The recruit would be joining the team that’s responsible for Apple Pay and the iPhone Wallet app.
The “key qualifications” for the role, first spotted by Coin desk, include “5+ years experience working in or with alternative payment providers, such as digital wallets, BNPL, Fast Payments, cryptocurrency and etc.”
The ad also suggests the company is looking for someone who is not wedded to mainstream payment solutions. “We are looking for a candidate who is comfortable with ambiguity, enjoys thinking about edge cases, and asking ‘what is an alternative way of doing this,” the ad on the Apple website reads.
As spotted by the FT, it seems Apple is gently warming to the idea of supporting crypto currencies, even before this hire. The App Store listing for the crypto currency trading service, Coin base, shows that it’s now supported in Apple Wallet, although it seems the functionality hasn’t been fully switched on yet.
Big-brand backing
If Apple were to fully embrace crypto currencies, it would give the market its strongest endorsement yet.
Tesla’s Elon Musk has been arguably the biggest backer of crypto currencies to date, although his erratic support wavered again last month when he announced that the car company would no longer accept Bitcoin for vehicle purchases, citing fears over the environmental damage caused by bitcoin mining.
There is speculation that Musk is simply trading his chips from one crypto currency to another, however, having made several strong public statements in support of doge coin.
Support from Apple would surely drive demand for cryptocurrencies, although that is already causing problems in some parts of the world. Iran this week declared a four-month ban on cryptocurrency mining over fears that it was causing surges in demand for electricity. Unlicensed miners in the country are taking advantage of the country’s relatively cheap electricity to run enormous cryptocurrency mining rigs.
