Many people are closely scrutinizing Apple’s policy changes at its Worldwide Developer Conference yesterday, as Liberty Blitzkrieg's Mike Krieger [4]notes that many within the Bitcoin community are focused on a small recent entry within the section on “Purchasing and Currencies” within the document: App Store Review Guidelines that "facilitates transmission of approved virtual currencies." Apple’s brand suffered earlier this year when the company decided to ban the Blockchain Bitcoin app. In fact, it unleashed such a firestorm that diehard technologists and Bitcoin fans took to YouTube to post videos of themselves destroying their iPhones. This apparent shift in stance, as Bloomberg reports, i [5]s being celebrated with Bitcoin entrepreneurs were already predicting an explosion of activity.
Mike Krieger details the changes [4]...
Many people are closely scrutinizing Apple’s policies today due to the kickoff of the company’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference. For folks within the Bitcoin community, focus has been on a small recent entry within the section on “Purchasing and Currencies” within the document: App Store Review Guidelines. See below:
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As you can see, 11.17 is the latest addition to that particular section, which is leading many to think this is a change of policy. Of course, we don’t know what “approved” virtual currencies are, but if Apple didn’t approve Bitcoin it would be the biggest joke of all-time and I don’t think the company would be so stupid.
If myself and others are reading this correctly, it is hard to overestimate the importance of this for the Bitcoin ecosystem. Just as the complexity of buying Bitcoin held it back in the early years until companies such as Coinbase came along, so too has Apple’s ban prevented BTC from growing even larger than it has thus far.
The change signals that Apple is warming up to virtual currencies after previously blocking programs like Blockchain.info from its App Store. Bitcoin is the most popular digital currencies, which governments are struggling to determine how to regulate because they exist only as software.
“This is a sign that the ecosystem is maturing and gaining credibility,” Bill Lee, an investor in bitcoin wallet BitGo, said in an e-mail. “To be clear, I still think bitcoin is in its infancy as a technology, but its acceptance is becoming more and more mainstream.”
“Get ready for a plethora of bitcoin iOS apps!” bitcoin venture capitalist Adam Draper said in an e-mail. “Very exciting news!”
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“If anything, Apple had more to lose by keeping bitcoin off the App Store,” said Gil Luria, an analyst at Wedbush Securities Inc. “Bitcoin users were not going to give up bitcoin - they were giving up on the iPhone.”
The Bitcoin price surged on the news...
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