Uniswap's Crypto Wallet Launch Gets Stalled By Apple

Uniswap Labs, the protocol development firm behind Uniswap, the crypto industry's largest decentralized exchange by volume, has disclosed the difficulties it is currently facing as it attempts to launch a crypto wallet app for mobile platforms.

The wallet is currently on an early access release phase, with connections to the Uniswap mainnet, Optimism, Arbitrum, and Polygon. According to Uniswap, the wallet will be able to provide trading on the DeFi protocol's swapping routers, as well as display feeds for market cap, price charts, and volume. The wallet also has integrations with WalletConnect for all supported Layer 2 protocols. Uniswap's mobile wallet is also open-sourced with all code available for review on its Github repo.

1/ Introducing the Uniswap mobile wallet 🦄✨

A completely self-custodial, open-sourced mobile app from the most trusted name in DeFi.

Now available as a limited early release - through Apple TestFlight. pic.twitter.com/NmO8c0bXMs

— Uniswap Labs 🦄 (@Uniswap) March 3, 2023

Despite these arguably great features, it appears that Apple Inc. has blocked the launch of Uniswap's wallet launch for iOS, the former's mobile platform. Uniswap's request to list the wallet was denied by Apple, citing App Store policy violations.

“Apple won’t yet green-light our launch and we don’t know why – we’ve responded to their concerns, answered every question and reiterated that we are 100% compliant with their specifications,” Uniswap explains.

Apple has historically been notorious to crypto-related applications, blocking off NFT purchases due to to violations to its Review Guidelines, acting these out both as a security measure and as an attempt to secure its posture as a "walled garden" ecosystem for of services. In December of 2022, Coinbase, one of the most highly-ranked crypto apps for iOS, has decided to also remove NFT transfers on its app.

It can be argued that while these measures are being put in place for security, they have the chilling effect of stalling progress and innovation in crypto. These restrictions on NFT are understandably sound, but this recent limitation to decentralized finance, which Uniswap's efforts represent, can be seen as a step back. This is also because of Uniswap's status as a decentralized exchange (DEX), which may be at odds with Apple's criteria for what constitutes a proper "approved exchange." Further down the wallet's roadmap, it's highly possible that it gets delisted (if at all listed in the first place) as it plans to introduce non-custodial, permissionless trades.

"It's a rulebook that nobody can read which is a really hard environment to operate in," shares Callil Capuozzo, Uniswap Labs Design Lead.

As the regulatory environment in the U.S. heats up post-FTX, crypto projects looking to expand their presence and reach to mobile-first audiences continue to find themselves in the crosshairs of Apple's policy. Uniswap is still courting Apple for approval, while other crypto firms are developing workarounds and alternative services specifically tailored to evade App Store guidelines.

MetaMask, backed by ConsenSys, is among the more popular wallet apps on iOS, and while its decentralized aspects are roughly of the same shape as Uniswap (even going forth to aggregate pricing and process swaps via the Uniswap router), it is built from the ground up as a wallet, not as an offshoot product from a DEX.

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