DOJ and US States Take on Apple in Major Antitrust Suit Over App Store Monopoly

March 22, 2024 Bitcoin.com

Robinhood Wallet rolls out on iOS with Android support to follow

March 2, 2023 Coin Telegraph

10-K Filing

The full launch and removal of the 1 million waitlisted users come six months after Robinhood launched its beta version in September.

Trading platform Robinhood has launched its Web3 wallet on Apple’s App Store, becoming available to iOS users in over 130 countries.

Robinhood shared the news in a Mar. 1 post, stating that users would no longer need to sit on a waitlist to access the new multi-chain, self-custody wallet. It added that it will be supported on Android “later this year.”

#RobinhoodWallet is now available to everyone with iOS: https://t.co/yUdL8jCgJN pic.twitter.com/q7RIWBJUIT
— Johann Kerbrat (@JohannKerbrat) March 1, 2023

Since the beta launch of the Robinhood Wallet in September, the trading platform integrated Ethereum — in addition to already supporting Polygon — and added 50+ ERC tokens to be bought, sold and held on the self-custody wallet.

Among the tokens now supported include USDC, UNI, MATIC and SHIB.

These tokens can be traded without paying transaction fees and users are able to use these cryptocurrencies to interact with a range of decentralized applications (Dapps).

*A preview of the Robinhood Web3 Wallet. Source:* *Robinhood.*

Robinhood Crypto general manager Johann Kerbrat said the support for Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens came in response to customers wanting access to more coins and tokens on more chains.

Since the beta launch, Robinhood Wallet has also added a nonfungible token (NFT) feature to enable users to collect and store their favorite collectibles on Ethereum and Polygon.

A Robinhood spokesperson told Cointelegraph that Robinhood NFTs would not be subject to Apple’s 30% commission on apps and in-app purchases of digital goods and services.

While the Robinhood Wallet is self custodied there is a range of self-verification methods that can be implemented to provide security to its Web3 users:

“When users get started, they need to set up either Face/Touch ID or a custom PIN, which they’ll use to authenticate every time they open the app. They will also be asked to create a secret recovery phrase, also known as a seed phrase, that allows them access to their wallet and crypto.”

Robinhood stated that users “can–and should–back up their wallet” by writing it down, storing it offline, or saving it in a secure manner.

However, not everyone is on board with the security mechanisms set in place with the Robinhood Wallet.

A Reddit poster by the name of “StamInBlack” wasn’t happy with the option of having seed phrases stored on iCloud, while others in the same thread expressed unrelated reservations with the trading platform.

*An additional method to secure the Robinhood Wallet. Source:* *Robinhood.*

However, Kerbrat said the feedback on the Robinhood Wallet thus far has been ”extremely positive.”

The rollout comes two days after Robinhood Markets revealed in a 10-K filing that it received a subpoena from the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in December to conduct an investigation into its cryptocurrency listings, custody and platform operations.

Decentralized Twitter alternative goes live on Apple’s App Store

February 1, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Apple App Store

The Damus app is powered by Nostr which uses decentralized relays to distribute end-to-end encrypted messages.

Damus, a so-called “Twitter killer” built on a decentralized network has been approved on the Apple App Store.

The Damus team confirmed the approval to its 11,500 Twitter followers on Jan. 31, following what it claims was at least three rejections from the Big Tech player.

Shortly after, Twitter co-founder and Nostr contributor Jack Dorsey shared the news with his 6.5 million followers, with the entrepreneur labeling it as a “milestone” moment for open source protocols:

a milestone for open protocols...#nostr is now officially on the Apple App Store with @damusapp:https://t.co/GQmvPE5nfX
— jack (@jack) January 31, 2023

The app dubs itself the “social network you control” and is a messaging service built on Nostr — a decentralized network enabling encrypted, end-to-end private messaging, among other things.

It plans to become a social media platform with uncensored content. It also has built-in payments through the Bitcoin (BTC) layer-2 Lightning network according to a Jan. 27 post from Protos.

No servers run the network. Instead, Nostr utilizes decentralized relays to distribute messages.

Nostr developers are also focused on using Bitcoin and the Lightning Network to prevent Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) spam attacks on the Damus app.

*The User Interface of Damus displayed on an iPhone. Source:* *Github*

There have been 44 different software developers who have contributed to the code for the Damus web app, according to the team’s GitHub page.

Neat way to fetch bitcoin addresses: #nostr encrypted dms. pic.twitter.com/lMlnIhf3fg
— William Casarin ⚡️ (@jb55) January 29, 2023

Getting Damus on the Apple App Store didn’t come without issues though.

The Damus Twitter page posted that it had failed in at least three attempts before finally being approved:

We replied again clarifying where and how all these features are implemented. That's all we can do at this time....
— Damus⚡️ (@damusapp) January 31, 2023

One of Nostr’s core developers, William Casarin also shared some frustration on his personal Twitter account, stating that it would be a “shame” if Apple users couldn’t use Nostr natively.

While the exact partnership between Dorsey and Nostr isn’t known, the billionaire entrepreneur sent over 14 BTC — worth about $250,000 at the time — in mid-December to help the Nostr developer team.

While the news appeared to have increased awareness of the application amongst the Bitcoin community, other high-profile figures have tested out the Damus app too.

Amongst those include Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden and pro-crypto U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis.

One of the cool things about Nostr ("Notes and other stuff transmitted by relays", a new decentralized protocol that replaces things like Twitter and Instagram)—beyond censorship resistance—is that you aren't limited to 280 characters.

Find me there. pic.twitter.com/B7JUHeeSdP
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 23, 2023

At the time of writing, the Damus web app has run into problems. A warning message on the site homepage reads:

“Damus Web is down because there is someone trying to exploit browser loopholes to steal private keys. I would not recommend using a web client at this time. Damus iOS is not affected.”