
Coinbase Bitcoin Wallet App Gets Axed From iOS App Store - clamprecht
http://bitcoinblogger.com/apple-still-afraid-bitcoin-coinbase-bitcoin-wallet-app-gets-axed-ios-app-store/
======
miguelrochefort
I'm the developer of the of the only Bitcoin wallet client on Windows Phone.
It works with both Coinbase and Blockchain.

[http://www.windowsphone.com/en-
us/store/app/bitcoin/ca65fc5b...](http://www.windowsphone.com/en-
us/store/app/bitcoin/ca65fc5b-14f0-4da4-8e39-e2d4b702b2ea)

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.

~~~
clamprecht
I love this idea. I just used Passbook for the first time recently. I got to
the airport and my Delta passes were on my home screen. It was great.

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).

~~~
miguelrochefort
> 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).

That would be awesome actually.

------
nwh
Doesn't make sense really. There's two other wallets, blockchain.info's and
Coinjar.io's which are still sitting pretty.

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blockchain/id493253309](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blockchain/id493253309)

[https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/coinjar-for-
iphone/id7252098...](https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/coinjar-for-
iphone/id725209873)

More likely they removed it to fix a bug, than it being forcefully taken down.

~~~
coinbase-craig
We didn't remove it.

~~~
chid
Doesn't Apple give you a reason for pulling it?

------
oscilloscope
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.

~~~
bobbles
As someone fairly new to bitcoin, what is the actual advantage of carrying the
wallet in your pocket?

Wouldn't you rather have your wallet stored say on your home PC, but be able
to transfer in and out from your mobile device?

~~~
stinkytaco
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.

------
ceejayoz
Afraid of Bitcoin? No. Afraid of regulators? I'd imagine.

------
pat2man
This isn't new at all: [http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/06/13/why-
apple-...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/06/13/why-apple-is-
afraid-of-bitcoin/)

It was nice to have the Coinbase app but there was always a risk they were
going to pull it. Gliph still works...

~~~
eridius
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.

------
sciguy77
I'm not sure "afraid," is the right word. Perhaps Apple's legal team is just
trying to avoid potential run ins with the law?

~~~
seiji
Saying generic-big-organization-or-government is "afraid" of you is a generic
tactic to empower your cult-like base into thinking they matter.

It's the "doctors hate this elementary school teacher who discovered one weird
trick!" of pet causes.

------
dangrossman
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.

~~~
clamprecht
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.

Source:
[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paypal/id283646709](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paypal/id283646709)

~~~
adventureloop
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.

------
colinbartlett
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.

~~~
shinratdr
They can, but never have.

~~~
samweinberg
Source?

~~~
CrazedGeek
[http://www.hackthatphone.com/3x/kill_switch.html](http://www.hackthatphone.com/3x/kill_switch.html)

~~~
chid
:( link rot, the full article seems unviewable
[http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/killswitch.html](http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/killswitch.html)

------
Yhippa
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.

------
Fuxy
And this is why Apple has lost its way.

I doubt Steve Jobs would have allowed the situation to be handled so badly.

Then again I may be wrong. The concept of an app store is great for having all
the apps in one place but it's prone to abuse when run by a company.

There shouldn't be any reason other quality, viruses or spyware to reject an
app.

Refusing an app because its in competition with your product is anti-
competitive and should be illegal.

~~~
drob
Excuse me?

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.

~~~
patrickk
Not to mention refusing an app, then ripping off the idea:

[http://www.dailytech.com/Apple+Accused+of+Ripping+Off+Develo...](http://www.dailytech.com/Apple+Accused+of+Ripping+Off+Developers+Rejected+WiFi+Sync+App/article21871.htm)

------
wildchild
Why people still trust all these cloud wallets? Can't they be hacked/hack
oneself some day?

~~~
aqme28
Anything can be hacked, but sometimes it's good to have money on hand to pay
bar tabs with. Can't do that with my buried-in-the-ground wallet.

~~~
kybernetyk
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.

~~~
Jtsummers
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.

------
nextstep
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?

~~~
maushu
Apple can do both. Either remain (without updates or new users) or remote
uninstall on every device (generally used for malware).

~~~
MBCook
> 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.

~~~
nwh
There certainly is a kill switch, but as far as I know it's never been used.

------
pyalot2
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.

~~~
damon_c
I'm pretty sure Apple removing an app from the store has no effect on
installations already on people's devices.

This may have changed with iOS 7's auto updates.

------
frank_boyd
Time to axe the iOS app store. Time for new open platforms.

------
dan1234
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?

------
duncan_bayne
"Owner of closed, proprietary walled-garden chooses to exclude yet another app
based on their own inscrutable decision making process."

How is this news?

------
bernatfp
Well, I guess they can focus on integrating Litecoin into their system now...

------
hrrsn
There's still the Blockchain wallet app.

------
throwwit
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.

------
rookadook
They are not afraid of bitcoin or anything like that. They just don't like bad
apps. sorry.

~~~
stefan_kendall
That's just false. Apple rejects things without reason just 'cause. Quality is
the catch all they use to reject apps arbitrarily.

