Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of stablecoin firm Circle, says his firm is planning to introduce tap-and-go payments on iPhones after a move from Apple to open up development on iPhone secure payments chips to third-party developers.

“Tap to pay using USDC on iPhones incoming soon. Wallet devs, start your engines,” Allaire said in an Aug. 14 post to X.

USDC to embrace tap-and-go payments after Apple opens up NFC image 0 Source: Jeremy Allaire

In an Aug. 14 statement, California-based tech giant Apple said that it would open up the use of its NFC chip and Secure Element (SE) to third-party app developers, paving the way for crypto developers to integrate blockchain-based payments functionality on the Apple device.

In a follow-up post to X, Allaire explained that prior to Apple’s move, the only payment features that could use NFC on iPhones were Apple’s own Wallet app and the Apple Pay feature.

“This would allow a [point of sale] to tell an iPhone what blockchain address it will accept USDC on, or the amount to pay, and then the iPhone-based wallet app could prompt the user to confirm a payment (like with FaceID) and initiate a transaction over the blockchain to settle the USDC,” Allaire said.

“Combining this with high-performance and low-fee blockchain networks (most these days), this will open up a powerful pathway for direct to merchant USDC payments.”

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Additionally, Allaire explained that Apple's opening up access to its NFC chip would apply to “lots of things” outside of USDC, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for tickets, other certificates, and other stablecoins like EURC.

Notably, Apple said the APIs would be made available to developers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States but made no mention of the European Union and its 27 member nations.

Making its own payment moves, crypto wallet firm MetaMask announced a partnership with Mastercard and Baanx to launch a self-custody debit card pilot in the UK and the EU. The pilot will allow select users to pay for everyday items directly from their crypto wallet.

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