Apple has several things going for it if it wanted to created a person-to-person payment system:<p>* hundreds of millions of NFC-enabled, Touch ID-capable devices<p>* the platform vendor advantage: it would come pre-installed on new devices and in a future iOS update<p>* users already transact billions of dollars through Apple services: Apple Pay, iTunes and the App Store<p>* unlike many banks and retailers, Apple Pay hasn&#x27;t been hacked<p>Not only could Apple create a Venmo or PayPal-like service using ACH, it would do something with in-person payments further down the line thanks to NFC and Touch ID.<p>Just as we&#x27;ve seen a large drop in the use of Google Maps on iOS once Apple Maps was good enough and came pre-installed, the same would happen with Venmo, PayPal, Square Cash and the rest, especially for those folks who&#x27;ve never used any of those services and are getting their first smartphone or dipping their toe into app-mediated payments for the first time.<p>Some people have speculated about Apple doing some kind of cryptocurrency (Dell and Microsoft accept bitcoin, for example), what they really need is real-time, multi-currency transactions, with the ability to create their own currency or token if they wanted to and that&#x27;s Ripple: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ripple.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;a-new-chapter-for-ripple&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ripple.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;a-new-chapter-for-ripple&#x2F;</a>. Ripple would enable Apple to do its favorite thing: cut out the middle man. And of course, Ripple would allow users to transact in whatever cryptocurrency they wanted to in addition to fiat currencies.