Michal Ždanský The virtual currency Bitcoin has been in the spotlight in recent weeks. It recently reached its all-time high in value, and while some see it as the currency of the future, others would rather ban it outright or at least heavily regulate it. As for Apple, it has quite a stepmotherly relationship with Bitcoin, as the events of the last few days have shown. It removes or refuses to approve applications that allow trading with this virtual currency from the App Store.
Apple's relationship with Bitcoin came into the media attention yesterday when the developers of the app Gliph published a request to Apple to remove Bitcoin-related functionality from their app. Gliph is itself a communication app that allows both parties to exchange messages securely and encrypted, similar to BlackBerry Messenger, but also allows Bitcoin to be transferred between accounts using an API that allows interaction between accounts, similar to PayPal. It was this feature that became a thorn in Apple's side.
Gliph however, it is not the only affected application. Just this year, Apple removed the app Coinbase enabling the exchange of Bitcoins, other applications serving this currency also did the same: Bitpak, Bitcoin Express a Blockchain.info. Most of them were removed based on Section 22.1 of the App Store Guidelines, which states that “Developers have a responsibility to understand and comply with all local laws.” And this is the core of the poodle, in many countries Bitcoin is in the gray zone, the Chinese central banks even declared that they will ban Bitcoin as such in China, which immediately cut the value of the currency in half ($680 per Bitcoin).
On the other hand, according to Bank of America, Bitcoin may become an important part of the payment system in e-shops in the future. After all, some traders accept the currency already today, for example brand car dealers Lamborghini, Virgin Galactic or WordPress. Unfortunately, Bitcoin also played its role in the infamous e-shop Silk Road, where it was possible to buy, for example, weapons or drugs for virtual currency. This is also the reason for the ban in China. Many traders are still skeptical of Bitcoin, mainly because of its volatility – the value can jump by tens of percent within days, as the deep drop after the news from China showed. What's more, it's not even possible for a normal mortal to get Bitcoins, the most likely way is to mine Bitcoins through computer "farms" that take care of calculating complex algorithms and in return their operators are rewarded with virtual currency.
The reason why Apple is removing applications that enable trading with Bitcoins is obvious. Due to the controversy in some countries, they are protecting themselves as a precaution against possible problems with the governments there, after all, the developers think so too Gliph:
Among other reasons, we wonder if Apple doesn't want to regulate useful Bitcoin apps in the App Store simply because it recognizes the ambiguity in the currency's laws, which presents a lot of trouble that isn't worth it. Bitcoin is still in its early stages, and most Apple customers probably don't even know such a currency exists, nor are they looking for such apps. It is better for Apple to avoid such applications for now and possibly change its mind in the future.
I would like to correct some statements.
For example, Bitcoin is not banned in China, just as it is not banned in any other country.
Of course, a normal mortal can get Bitcoin by buying it.
http://levels.io/regular-people-bitcoin/
Regulation and prohibition are not the same thing. If the law banned bitcoin, then possession of bitcoin would be a crime. They have only begun to regulate the possibilities of official use of bitcoin so that banks are not allowed to exchange it and companies are not allowed to accept payments. However, individuals can continue to use bitcoin without restriction between themselves, just as they can use it anywhere abroad. It's a small difference that makes Bitcoin not banned, just regulated.
I'm a normal mortal and I bought bitcoin, today the infrastructure is a bit further away. It's like writing that a normal mortal can't buy gold, and referring to the fact that getting into the gold market is hard.
And as the colleague next to me has already pointed out, bitcoin is not banned, the fact that banks may not use it as securities or currency, which was decided by the Chinese bank, is not really a ban on trading bitcoin in China.
So does Thailand. Here, some bank official stated that he does not recommend investing in bitcoin, and through the media, this led to a ban on bitcoin in Thailand.
It's nice that a normal mortal can buy it, but how many normal mortals have a few dollars in their account to buy it?
Bitcoins are already sold on microBTC, where 1 mBTC costs around 50 cents. It is just a misconception that it has to be taken after 1BTC. Once BTC is a universally recognized currency, 1BTC will be worth the entire asset. And it's easy to buy. There are ATMs in Slovakia.
if iOS is going to ban anything with bitcoins, I think it's a decent blow for the future of this currency
In my opinion, this is quite a blow to the developers. They put in the work with the development and suddenly they just delete it, even though they don't even have a proper reason to do so.