Is Apple banning crypto wallets on iOS?

[kencode]

Comply with the laws, be an "approved currency", must have a higher market cap... WTF?

First, we must comply with the laws, we must be an "approved currency", we must have a higher market cap... Make up your mind Apple!!

I dev crypto mobile apps too and I've experienced the exact same problems. First they said we must comply with the laws blah blah, then they said we were not an "approved currency", now they are saying that our market cap is not big enough. I submitted appeal after appeal and they even called me a few times to discuss the matter (so they could basically read me the same stuff over the phone). I think they're gonna release their own coin or something and they want to limit their competition (the iCoin?). Whatever, I gave up after a month of wasted time with the daily appeals going back and forth. We only code mobile crypto wallets for droids now, fukm.

news.bitcoin.com/apple-ban-ethereum-ios/

It sure would be nice to get back some of the thousands of dollars we had to spend to develop an iOS mobile wallet (BitShares Wallet: github.com/kenCode-de/bitshares-wallet/tree/master/platforms) just to have them block it!!!! grrr

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Comments

[proggr]

Oh god... if Apple, or realistically any major tech player, rolled out their own cryptocurrency it would be a travesty. Its going to happen eventually, especially since banks have been looking into crypto a lot anyway, but I'd hoped we'd have more time to let an open community determine a standard before it gets co-opted by corporate interests :(

[arhag]

This is what I hate about the iOS ecosystem.

Up to fairly recently, the only way to get an app to run on a non-jailbroken iOS device was either for the app to have been approved by Apple, or for the user to pay up $99/year to Apple to join their developer program. Now things are slightly better because anyone with a Mac can launch Xcode 7+, download and compile the source of an application, and deploy it on their device.

But they still aren't great when compared to Android because:

1. You can only do this on a Mac. So in a sense you still are paying Apple more money than what is necessary for the iPhone itself in order to get the privilege of running whatever app you want on the device you paid money for. What if I don't want to use a Mac? Then I'm out of luck.
2. This only works for open-source code because you need to compile it with Xcode. Android allows you to sideload compiled APKs which means you could still run free (as in beer) apps made available by the developers even for apps where the devs rather not share their proprietary code with the world. (Technically you could still run paid apps via sideloading as well if you could acquire the APKs, but to be legal you would still need to purchase the license for the app from the devs.)
3. The process for "sideloading" iOS apps is far more cumbersome than that of sideloading Android apps. You need another machine (the Mac) that you physically connect your mobile device to, meaning you can't just conveniently download it from your mobile device and install it. And users are forced to actually compile code which is adding a significant technical barrier to many people. On Android, after enabling the sideloading feature in the settings, it is as easy as downloading the APK, opening it, and, after reviewing the permissions it requests, clicking install.

I get that the above complicated process of "sideloading" for iOS isn't designed for sideloading but rather for devs to test their code. But that just means that Apple doesn't really support the user running any technically-compatible apps they want on their own device. I refuse to support that kind of closed ecosystem as a consumer.

[steemrollin]

Yeah sucks to hear! Hopefully over time they'll loosen up, but at this stage it seems better to wait a bit. I figure Ethereum will eventually get in soon, but who knows. Too much uncertainty.

[jsc]

We have to educate all our friends and they do the same; people must become aware of any blockchain or platform that does not deliver the best possible privacy or freedom. We need people to be willing to make calls, send emails, etc. They should be rewarded for their efforts for a change (perhaps on steemit). When consumers make noise businesses listen.

[jsc]

Please add contact information for apple and any fast-track advice in you have for getting through to them.

[complexring]

You could always put the apps you've developed on Cydia -- the app store for jailbroken iPhones.

[smooth]

Know going in that iOS is a walled garden and Apple approves and pulls whatever they want for whatever reasons.

As an independent app developer especially without the resources to either lobby Apple at a very high level or treat the cost of development as speculation on the possibility Apple might accept it, I would stay away from anything remotely controversial (and that certainly includes crypto).