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Comment by nwh | Hacker News Reader

> 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.

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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?

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

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

The Square app exists too, Apple even sells their hardware at their stores.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/H8332LL/B/square-credit-ca...

Can you embed code that allows you to buy books, music or movies via PayPal in the App Store? No.

The difference between bit coin and the paypal app is that bit coin is cash. If I embed bit coin code in say, the Kindle App, I can make purchases that Apple wants a 30% cut of.

You're not making any sense. I don't think you understand how Bitcoin, IAP, or iOS works. One app can't just "embed" code in another, Bitcoin is not cash as we know it, and Apple's app review process would target the app attempting to use a forbidden IAP mechanism, not another app for moving money around.

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.

As I understand it, Apple also required any app selling things in iOS to give them 30%. Which is why for example, Amazon does not have an in-app link to their ebook site through the Kindle app. Bitcoin could potentially circumvent this.

If you sell something in your app that is then consumed in the app, you have to do it through Apple's IAP and give them a 30% cut.

On the other hand, if you're selling physical products, you're not allowed to use Apple's IAP. I was actually surprised when I read this, but the review rules did state that last time I looked.

Using an app to manage a payment system that's external to Apple is quite legitimate. That's why the PayPal app exists. And I would wager that Bitcoin apps would fall under the same general category, of being things that happen outside of IAP, and therefore the reason they're getting pulled from the store has to do with something other than the IAP rules.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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/

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