Apple reinstates Blockchain Bitcoin app to the App Store
In early February, Apple ruffled a few digital feathers when it abruptly removed a Bitcoin wallet app called Blockchain from the App Store.
Following the apps removal, Blockchain CEO Nicholas Cary took to CNBC where he didn't mince words, calling Apple a "gatekeeper on innovation" and lambasting the company for removing the app without even providing a crumb of an explanation.
"Apple has telegraphed they'll do something on top of the hundreds of millions of credit cards they have on their system," Cary theorized at the time. "Bitcoin represents a major threat to any revenue model they may try to build. Anything they do with credit cards is not going to be innovative. Bitcoin is."
Well, Bitcoin enthusiasts and proponents can now rest a bit easier. Apple over the past few months has slowly but surely taken steps to embrace Bitcoin.
This past June, for instance, Apple added a new paragraph regarding Bitcoin apps to its App Store review guidelines.
11.17 Apps may facilitate transmission of approved virtual currencies provided that they do so in compliance with all state and federal laws for the territories in which the app functions.
And so by mid-June, previously exiled Bitcoin apps began reappearing in the App Store. Most recently, Blockchain's Bitcoin wallet app was reinstated to the App Store.
Applauding Apple's about face, Cary told the International Business Times: "We're very excited to continue investing in iOS again and working with Apple to reimagine how the world transacts."
