Coinpunk's Response to Apple for Removal of Blockchain App

http://blog.coinpunk.com/?id=blockchain#appleblockchainresponse

by kyledrake • 12 years ago

49 53 12 years ago

blog.coinpunk.com

jxf2• 12 years ago

I don't understand how the challenge to Apple is supposed to work.

Isn't this equivalent to, say, Wal-Mart deciding not to stock your widgets anymore because they're going to manufacture a competing widget? It sucks, sure, but it also seems like it's within their rights to do so.

Is Apple in the clear or are they running afoul of the law somewhere?

Steko• 12 years ago

AFAI can tell they're not making a legal claim, they're asking for consumer pressure.

oscargrouch3• 12 years ago

Its ok for you that they decide, what apps you can or cant have in a device you bought with your own money?

First they use morality.. and kick out some tech, just because they dont like them.. than they use all sorts of games to tell who are in and who are out.. but hey! the phone is in your pocket.. you should decide, not them

Its a company or its your priest? They are deciding your life for you... wake up.

Really, i dont want to have anything to do with apple, im a free spirit and i know better whats good for me, they just need to get out of our way.. but the state are also corrupted by the big companies.. they do nothing to stop that..because you know, politics and power is a expensive game to play.. and here comes the Big Brother.. and people just love them..

jxf2• 12 years ago

I didn't say I was okay with any of it -- in fact, I said the opposite ("[this] sucks"). However, it's also perfectly legal, as far as I can tell.

I guess I don't really get what consumer pressure is going to do, realistically speaking. The number of Bitcoin users (the users most likely to participate in this) is very small relative to the number of Apple users.

If you're interested, I'd be willing to make a $100 bet to the charity of the winner's choice that Apple will not reinstate Coinpunk anytime in the next three months.

ubernostrum2• 12 years ago

Its ok for you that they decide, what apps you can or cant have in a device you bought with your own money?

Libertarian response: yes, it's perfectly OK, so long as Apple did not use force or fraud to get me to buy their device and agree to their terms of service.

Next question?

dsuth2• 12 years ago

I don't think anyone is forcing you to use an iPhone? They are well within their rights to decide what is and isn't acceptable on their devices. And you're well within your rights to buy something else. Or buy nothing (crazy concept, I know).

css771• 12 years ago

But if Walmart decides not to stock your item, there's still Target or somewhere else for a customer to go to to get it. But if Apple bans your app, the entire iOS userbase will never see it.

bdamm• 12 years ago

Well there's still Android or somewhere else for a customer to go get it. (Wait, did you write your app in Objective C?)

epsylon• 12 years ago

You can still jailbreak, can't you?

Touche• 12 years ago

If Wal-Mart were the only store allowed in your city. And the Mayor worked for Wal-Mart.

sangfroid• 12 years ago

Wouldn't a better way to make a point be to simply stop buying Apple products?

eli• 12 years ago

Well, I'm guessing the people who care about this iOS app already have Apple products.

IBM• 12 years ago

They know that no one really cares about Bitcoin enough to materially affect them via a boycott, so it's easier to write a blog post about it.

nwh4• 12 years ago

Blockchain being pulled from the app store proves what we've been saying all along: Apple isn't banning Bitcoin apps because of "legal grounds" (nobody is talking about making Bitcoin illegal), they're banning Bitcoin apps to anti-competitively prop up their own payments service.

What payment service? Apple runs no payment service, nor has announced that they intend to in the future. There can't be "anti-competitor" action if they don't even have a competing product to begin with.

sp332• 12 years ago

It's not "announced" but the rumors are flying.

nwh4• 12 years ago

Most Apple rumours don't even have a grain of truth, why start screaming around like lunatics that Apple feels threatened? Apple made six times more profit in Q4 of last year[0] than the Bitcoin total market cap[1][2], it's not even on the radar if they were making their own payment system.

They don't want sketchy looking payment apps on their storep, that's fairly easy to understand. It's behaviour like this post that makes the Bitcoin community even more hostile for companies to even consider approaching.

[0] http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/10/28Apple-Reports-Four...

[1]: The "market cap" is misleading in this circumstance anyway, you could probably only sell a few million dollars of the stuff before the market completely bottomed out and panic ensued that it never rose up again. There's very little liquidity and a lot of weak hands.

[2] http://coinmarketcap.com/

Spooky232• 12 years ago

iTunes is a type of payment network, and Apple's demand for a 30% share of revenue generated via apps is key to protecting that competitive advantage.

Bitcoin apps are a challenge to this. Say if Amazon made a wallet app that happened to let you buy EBooks?

nknighthb2• 12 years ago

I guess that's why the PayPal app doesn't exist?

https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/paypal/id283646709?mt=8

eridius4• 12 years ago

That's really quite wrong. No matter what kind of currency is being used, an app like this can't possibly compete with the things that one purchases through Apple's stores. You can't buy apps or IAP, and you can't buy music/movies/TV from iTunes with it either.

So no, it has nothing to do with iTunes, and nothing to do with Apple's 30% cut. It's just a completely made-up reason.

BobMarin• 12 years ago

Apple is obviously working on one, and they see Bitcoinas a competitor(as they should).

The iBeacon is a clear step in that direction and besides it's not like Apple is upfront about it's business, iBeacon was in Apple devices for two years before anybody found out about them for crying out loud. They know their endgame and are always working towards it.

That being said, they will loose this one

jmspring• 12 years ago

Was blockchain willing to give Apple it's 30% cut of purchases? Wonder if that would have made a difference.

nwh4• 12 years ago

Blockchain.info (not blockchain, that's a term for part of the Bitcoin protocol) is a web wallet rather than a purchasing service. I doubt anybody would use something like that, especially in the "trustless" model Blockchain.info advertises itself to use.

higherpurpose2• 12 years ago

There are rumors Apple is launching one soon. If Apple already knows that, then it "makes sense" for Apple to already start banning them now, rather than make it super obvious why they are doing it after they launch their own payment service.

msie• 12 years ago

I'm a big Apple fan and I am disappointed in them. That they would be afraid of the legal consequences of Bitcoin apps is hogwash since they've fought tougher legal battles in the past (They even once pledged to protect developers against a patent troll too.). They are stifling a segment of innovation in the app marketplace. For shame Apple.

eridius4• 12 years ago

they're banning Bitcoin apps to anti-competitively prop up their own payments service

I found it very hard to continue reading after this, because Apple doesn't have a payments service. Not that they really had anything other to say beyond this laughable claim.

higherpurpose2• 12 years ago

Not yet:

http://business.time.com/2014/01/30/apples-next-big-thing-co...

eridius4• 12 years ago

If, and I stress that quite heavily, if Apple introduces a payment service, then we can revisit this topic. But Apple has never been known to pull apps from their store that compete with a potential future app of theirs. If Apple wants to take over a market, they'll do it when they enter that market. It runs counter to everything Apple to broadcast moves like this ahead of time.

etchalon• 12 years ago

Until they post their actual emails from Apple, I'm taking this with a massive grain of salt.

miw-on-mobile• 12 years ago

It was my understanding that the App Store version of blochchain.app was missing all wallet functionality and was just a read only transaction tracker. I've run the blockchain.info wallet app from Cydia for over a year and still using it today. Jailbreak while you still can.

SyneRyder• 12 years ago

Other wallet apps have been much more measured in their response to being removed from the store. Take the Coinjar folks response to Apple removing their app:

"Before you start DDOSing and trolling, Apple have done nothing wrong in this situation, they are just managing their own legal liability. We have had amicable discussions with them and hope they will support us in the future, when they have a more clear view of Bitcoin's place in their regulatory landscape." https://blog.coinjar.com/2014/01/09/coinjar-wallet-to-be-rem...

A petition will be ineffective, especially against Apple. The best way to show Apple it's a problem is by no longer being a customer & switching to another device. (I'm a long time Apple fan/user, but I now use a Nexus 5 partly to have more control over the apps I can install / use.)

kyledrake• 12 years ago

Apple is the -first operating system in the world- that can control what you can and cannot install on the physical hardware device you own. You literally have no choice but to jailbreak your own phone, which in itself has questionable legal grounds. People doing the jailbreaking are being hunted down like criminals. Being measured is how we got here, now it's time to speak out.

"The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do." -Apple http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rwsuXHA7RA

gibybo2• 12 years ago

Apple isn't an OS, so I assume you're talking about iOS. iOS is pretty far from the first OS to control what you can install on it. In fact it was one of the first phone OS's that let you install anything at all.

smoyer• 12 years ago

But is CoinJar running a crowd-funding campaign? I don't think the solution to Apple banning bitcoin apps is to fund CoinPunk.

Coinpunk's Response to Apple for Removal of Blockchain App

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