The app initially got rejected multiple times, for many different reasons (not related to the quality of the app). My feeling is that they were trying to find excuses not to accept this kind of app. During the first few months, I had to disable the payment function (making the app pretty much useless). Ultimately, I rebuilt the whole app, and integrated it directly with Windows Phone's Wallet (think Passbook). I'm still not sure why, but they accepted it right away.
Perhaps they could use the same approach, and integrate Coinbase with Passbook, giving one more reason for people to use Passbook (which I believe Apple would appreciate)? I'm not quite sure, but it worked for me.
> I'm thinking an integration with CoinMap, where if you walk into a store that accepts Bitcoin, it shows up on your home screen (if this is possible).
Seeing as those are still up and haven't been removed, I'm guessing the Coinbase app was removed for quality reasons. I used the thing and wasn't impressed. The experience wasn't great. Hopefully if they fix it up and resubmit the app, Apple will allow it back in.
I find this statement to be a bit absurd. The app is polished, looks good, easy to use, and has never once crashed on me. I'm honestly not sure what it could do better...
The lack of wallets for iPhone and iPad may be one of Bitcoin's biggest hurdles to mass adoption. Many early adopters use Apple products, but much of Bitcoin's appeal is lost if you can't carry it in your pocket. It's part of what makes Bitcoin cash-like.
Coinbase is already unsatisfying, as far as software wallets go, because you have to register with an email address. Your coins are held in a shared wallet, not on the device. But at least you get the idea of how Bitcoin works on a phone.
On the other hand, Apple didn't explicitly design iOS to be a highly secure environment suitable to store digital money on. A couple months ago, a bug in Android's random number generator was discovered that compromised all key pairs which used it. Android wallets had to issue an update which moved all the bitcoin in each wallet to a new address, generated with the patched RNG. But for a day or two, most Android wallets were vulnerable.
You need a wallet to make purchases using your phone (i.e. a wallet with its own address to transfer from or to). It's just like carrying cash. I can't transfer cash from home once I'm at the store, I need it right there. So what I do is usually transfer some bitcoin from my "main wallet" to my "phone wallet" when I think I might need it. If there are no wallet's for the iPhone, however (I use Android so I have no idea if this is actually true), then bitcoin on the go is useless to me.
Bitcoin is now > $400, it's well past early adoption stage. That was back in mid-2011.
( As an example, I did a technical presentation about Bitcoin to ${WORK}, a very traditional financial services company, in July 2011. Even then and in that context it wasn't a startling new concept. )
What's occurring now is the 'gold rush' stage, in which mid-curve-technology-awareness people are willing to use whatever technology is necessary to secure some Bitcoinage. I don't think the lack of iOS wallets is hindering that.
For storing $40 or so (like cash in a wallet) iOS's keychain should be plenty secure. For larger amounts the Coinbase method seems pretty good. They don't have to trust the device.
There are two wallets available in the app store. Blockchain and Coinjar. I can attest to the security and great UI of Blockchain. I don't know anything about coinjar.
Is there anything a native Bitcoin app could do that a web app couldn't do without a proxy to the Bitcoin network? (Which is what I believe Coinbase does anyway)
That entire article is based on a completely wrong premise. From the first paragraph:
> With the introduction of Passbook, Apple has launched mobile payments on iOS and competing virtual payment systems, including bitcoin, must be terminated.
Except Passbook isn't mobile payments on iOS. The article was wrong then, and it's still wrong now. There seems to be no relation at all between Passbook and Bitcoin.
Doesn't Apple require that in-app purchases happen through their system (where they take a cut)? The Coinbase app let you buy Bitcoins with US dollars. Sounds like a TOS violation, not an anti-Bitcoin conspiracy or fear of regulation. Admittedly, I'm not an iOS developer and don't keep up on changes to their developer guidelines, so I don't know if that rule still stands or if it applies here.
I don't know Apple's rule. But I know that PayPal has an iPhone app they describe as "your new digital wallet". Bitcoin is a digital wallet.[1] Does PayPal give Apple a cut for each payment? Somehow I doubt it.
I don't think that is the case. With the banking app from RBS I can perform bank transfers and even pay money to contacts. Apple surely can't be getting a cut of that.
That rule absolutely still applies today. It gets a little fuzzy in some situations. I wonder if ETrade has to give apple a cut since Etrade makes money on every buy/sell transaction... or the Amazon shopping app...
P.S., I just signed up with coinbase.com 2 days ago and entered in my bank details. My heart stopped when I saw coinbase on the frontpage of HN; given the kind of news we've been hearing about bitcoin-xchgs these last few days...
I sure hope Apple can't force an uninstall of apps I've already downloaded and installed... This makes me distrust the auto app update feature of iOS 7.
1. The App Store approval process (and app sand boxing) is so good that no malware made it through that needed the kill switch. Or,
2. Malware has made it out to customers, and the kill switch was used. However, Apple certainly isn't going to publicize that fact, and the malware author probably isn't going to either.
This is very disappointing. It's their house and you have to play by their rules I guess. This is why I have to keep diversifying where I acquire content from these ecosystems.
Hats off to the guys at Coinbase. I really like their approach to Bitcoin so far.
Random, weird rejections with no (or only a vague) explanation are prototypical Steve Jobs Apple. This policy is Steve Jobs Apple incarnate. This is one of the defining characteristics of an Apple under Steve Jobs.
One has to be astonishingly unperceptive to not see this.
This exact behavior happened all the time when Steve Jobs ran Apple. Remember Google Voice, or the countless other apps that Apple banned from the walled garden for whatever reason?
If anything, this is evidence that Apple hasn't changed.
Anything Apples does wrong people are now saying "This wouldn't happen under Jobs". How quickly people forget the iPhone 4's antenna problem and Steve Job's response of "You're holding it wrong."
There are alternatives that don't require centralized VC funded startups to act as banks for these cases. One would be: Having a mini wallet on paper (QR code for easy handling) and paying from that in your bar.
How can you have a paper wallet to make transactions? That would require the wallet to expose its private key to the recipient so they could generate a transaction. That means the wallet is compromised on first use. Paper wallets really only make sense for two things: carrying an address that others can send payments to; carrying the private key so that you can transfer the full amount into some other address.
What happens to an app when Apple pulls it from the store? The app remains on the devices that already downloaded it -- does this just prevent anyone from getting updates and any new users from downloading the coinbase app?
Right now, I'm connected with the Tether app - listed on the App store for less than a day, two years (and two iOS cycles) ago. So once you've downloaded an app, Apple does not generally disable it, even if they no longer approve.
> or remote uninstall on every device (generally used for malware)
Has Apple ever done this or said they could?
Technically, it would obviously be possible, but I don't remember Apple doing it.
My understanding is that when an app is pulled, it's usually still available for download if you had already bought it; but they have removed even that ability in a few cases.
Curious question. If you deploy a wallet app trough an app-store (such as iOS appstore or google play), people send coins to that wallet and then the app-store pulls the app, which will also delete the app from the users device, the coins are gone no?
I'm assuming that Apple or Google won't take responsibility for the wanton destruction of your property.
So maybe deploying wallet apps on devices where you don't control when your wallet gets nuked isn't such a great idea.
If the keys are stored at Coinbase and the app is just using APIs to talk back to the site, is there anything the app was doing that couldn't be replicated through a mobile website?
Adding to the speculation: Could apple be protecting it's business model? A bitcoin transaction can be a means of purchasing in an app without the 30% cut.
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/bitcoin/ca65fc5b...
The app initially got rejected multiple times, for many different reasons (not related to the quality of the app). My feeling is that they were trying to find excuses not to accept this kind of app. During the first few months, I had to disable the payment function (making the app pretty much useless). Ultimately, I rebuilt the whole app, and integrated it directly with Windows Phone's Wallet (think Passbook). I'm still not sure why, but they accepted it right away.
Perhaps they could use the same approach, and integrate Coinbase with Passbook, giving one more reason for people to use Passbook (which I believe Apple would appreciate)? I'm not quite sure, but it worked for me.