Apple CEO Tim Cook Owns Some Cryptocurrency, Perceives It As "Reasonable" Technology
As reported by Forbes, CNN, and others, Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly owns some cryptocurrencies, and considers them to be a “reasonable” technology — although Apple has no immediate plans to add any crypto to its balance sheet, as he doesn’t think Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock investors are primarily looking for exposure to cryptos when they buy his company’s stock, and he’s probably correct there.
Apple could lead in our opinion by providing an ease-of-use upgrade to the crypto space that has been, to date, quite lacking.
All told, a pretty reasoned take from one of Silicon Valley’s most influential executives, and hardware makers. In a best case scenario, Apple could ride the popularity of P2P crypto in the years ahead, similar to how it rode (and arguably birthed) the podcasting medium more than a decade ago with its iPod. Although RSS feed-based podcasts became a mainstay, and early core use case for iPods, Apple remained free of many of the editorial decisions and policies that have slowed other tech giants — similar to how an email client lets you send and receive email, but it doesn’t endorse the credibility of your emails… it has no say in the matter.
Apple has helped foster a huge ecosystem of diverse podcast shows, without directly curating or endorsing the vast majority of the content in podcast land. Rather than pick winners and losers, Apple picked a standard to support — RSS feed-based podcasts — and made itself the navigator or browser in the middle.
If Apple ever moves toward supporting a native wallet app of some kind, similar to how their Mail app works with various email providers, it could provide another reason for users to stick with their iPhones as an all-in-one type device. If there’s anything that needs simplifying, it’s crypto ownership. As the awkward societal transition from uncapped inflationary fiat to cryptocurrency occurs, Apple’s design chops can make the whole dance a lot more graceful than it’s been to date, and we are hopeful they will!
—FULCRUM Research