10 Dec 2013 / The Guardian – Apple has forced a secure messaging app to remove the ability to send bitcoin payments or be booted off the the iOS App Store. The move reinforces belief that the company has an unstated policy against allowing bitcoin apps on the store, despite allowing alternative forms of ecommerce such as apps from PayPal and Square.
The app, Gliph, lets users send secure texts back and forth, and also hooks up with online bitcoin services Coinbase and Blockchain.info to allow them to send money to friends. But that last feature was what raised Apple’s ire.
“We were asked by Apple to remove the ability to send Bitcoin from the iOS app,” the company’s co-founder, Rob Banagale, confirmed in a blog post. “We fought to keep it in but it was not possible… You can still create wallets, view balances and receive Bitcoin in the Gliph app for iOS.”
Coinbase itself, one of the two online wallets which Gliph uses to enable the Bitcoin payments, was also forced off the App Store in November, and Blockchain.info’s wallet app was pulled from the App store in 2012…… Read more
