Apple approves Dogecoin iOS app | Hacker News Reader

Apple approves Dogecoin iOS app

mydoge.co

123 pointsmadeofpalk61 comments

From the page:

>MYĐOGE is read-only. It can be used to monitor your Dogecoin at a glance, watch the markets or read about Dogecoin.

So it can't be used for transfers. It still doesn't look like Apple is approving apps that send *coins

Dogecoin is an example how your story about your product could make it or break it. Dogecoin is not yet another digital currency and this has nothing to do with it's technology.

I'd also say it demonstrates the importance of identifying a niche. Nobody cares about generic AltCoin #842012.

Positioning themselves as a tipping currency was a smart move. The internet has badly needed a way to reward people with very small amounts of money for years. That's one of the things I really like about doge, personally.

The thing I don't understand, though... why not just use bitcoin to do it?

It was BTC that found a way "to send really small amounts of money through the internet". No need to invent a niche.

To me it looks like the ones using dogecoin don't want to think of it as money, but just some other form of internet points like karma.

I agree, let me give you 0.0000005 BTC. Or I could give you 100 DOGE.

If you are being sarcastic, I am missing it. If in the end of the day both can buy the same thing, why should I care how big or how small the numbers are?

Because you're human, and humans are irrationally attracted to larger numbers through anchoring and other effects.

Use satoshis. It's just another unit like cents. Who cares what the base unit is worth...

Had bitcoin started with the satoshi as its base unit (i.e. what is called a satoshi was just called a bitcoin) then we might not be having this discussion.

But they didn't, and marketing matters.

Lets say I want to tip you roughly 10 cents.

I can send 0.0001 BTC Or 10000 Satoshi

BTC is too big. Satoshi is too small, something in between is just ... nice.

Nope. I am sorry. i don't buy it. There is no anchoring involved when the new currency is still not used to determine prices. People that still want to use dogecoin as actual money will have to do the conversion anyway. the large number will mean nothing when they cash out and realize that their MILLIONS of DOGE won't be enough to buy them a sandwich. Ask people in Zimbabwe if they care about carrying thousands of dollars in their wallets. they dont. such zeroes, many numbers, no actual purchasing power.

So it's because it looks better? You could always say "here, have 500 Satoshis".

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Satoshi

Here's 5400 Satoshi, actually. There's a dust limit to prevent micro cent spamming.

Just to be clear, Doge tipping is mostly not happening on the blockchain. These transactions are only transacting on the chain when people cash in or out of a tipbot.

People are dismissing this too easily. Looks matter, a lot. Tipping is an emotional connection - it's not a logical transaction. The tipper is making a contribution to something he likes. Giving 0.000000005 BTC gives the tipper and tippee an emotional message that his work isn't worth much. 100 DOGE makes it seem less petty. It's like giving a chocolate bar as a gift instead of $2 - you will get far more favorable reactions to the chocolate bar than a 'useless' $2.

I addition to the psychology of large numbers, there is a technical reason - the Doge network confirms transactions faster. (Arguably not a necessary feature for tipping, but again, the aesthetics are more pleasing.)

You can't send really small amount of Bitcoin, there is a cutoff to stop you "spamming" the network unless you also send a fee.

Also the mission statement of Bitcoin and Dogecoin are different.

Bitcoin is looking to replace world currency transactions by a secure peer-to-peer distributed network resistant to external attack through utilization of blah blah blah snooze.

Dogecoin is going to the moon.

>You can't send really small amount of Bitcoin, there is a cutoff to stop you "spamming" the network unless you also send a fee.

Right, and Dogecoin is very quickly going to run up against the problems associated with a many-gigabyte blockchain.

A gigabyte block chain doesn't matter on the moon.

Bitcoin is terrifying to someone who has read stories of hacks and theft for a few years as an outsider, so "The one that no one takes seriously yet" is comforting.

bitcoin also takes itself very, very seriously which raises the bar for entry by normal people. Why would you use dogecoin when you could have all the fedora wearing neckbeard libertarian preaching?

The nicest thing you can say about being associated with Bitcoin is that it's "seedy".

I wonder if this is the typical left doesn't know what the right does in regards to Apple's "personalized" cryptocurrency policy, so someone approved it without realizing the top executives don't want it there, and they might request for a ban later - or Apple has an incredibly inconsistent policy regarding cryptocurrencies. Neither one makes much sense.

maybe the fact that it is read only plays a role.

What seems to be consistant is that they don't actually care about cryptocurrencies. They care about not copping the blame when third party payment platforms cause problems for their users.

If there was some sort of security hole in a bitcoin iOS app that caused the owner to loose money, Apple will recieve some of the blame and negative press. Apple disallowing these apps is their way of mitigating that damage.

Why is this news? There's been other Dodgecoin apps in the App Store for a while now.

I've been using this one personally to track my wallet balance: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doge-tracker-dogecoin-price/...

Infact I think the one I've been using is probably better designed, although it isn't free.

It's news because yesterday there was a story about them removing a Bitcoin app.

They removed the Bitcoin app because you can send coins with it.

This dogecoin app is "read-only" for your dogecoin accounts.

I know. Obviously a lot of people didn't get that (too busy grabbing their pitchforks) which is why this story has probably made it to the front page today.

The app is new but the title is sensationally banking on that yesterday's story. Apple has only banned wallet apps, not every app related to cryptocurrencies.

It doesn't seem to be a wallet app, just for checking balance.

These handheld devices will someday become so close to us that it will be difficult to tell where the device ends and where the human begins. Someday large segments of the population are going to gladly submit some control of their mind to 3rd parties who know which programs and products are good for you, and which you are unauthorized to use.

I'll decide what I want to run and what not to run on MY computer, thanks. I guess it comes down to whether you want to be a pet in a safe walled garden with a pre-programmed experience, or a free agent out there with terrors to freeze your soul and delights to satiate your every desire.

This is a false dichotomy if there ever was one. I love my iOS devices, they just work, I can generally trust the software not to pwn my device, and really there's a lot of nice software to choose from. I also love hacking on the Linux kernel and gaming on Windows. I don't see such a threat of the walled gardens - it is one type of thing and it has its problems but it's not the only thing out there and I see no indication that it will be any time soon.

What you describe is already the world we live in. The comforts of digital feudalism vs. the freedom (and danger) of being a techno-ronin is gradually converging towards a serious civil rights issue.

In a different political climate, anti-trust legislation would be warranted (Apple deserves it more than Microsoft ever did), but these days, lobbyists have regulatory capture down to an exact science. The open source crowd (and I don't mean Google; they merely shift their evil server-side) needs to continue competing with with the fiefdoms on user experience, because that's what's going to sway real users and influence the market, not lofty ambitions about freedom.

  > Someday large segments of the population are going to
  > gladly submit some control of their mind to 3rd parties
  > who know which programs and products are good for you, and 
  > which you are unauthorized to use.

This is already in place and has nothing to do with technology. Just observe carefully all the stuff people get offended about, or call racist, or call sexist—usually there is little to no thinking involved, just conditioned response, sometimes reaching absurdity (like insisting that black person from UK should be called african-american). My impression is that in these cases people don't really have moral compass or deep understanding why something is right and something is wrong—this all was "outsourced" somewhere and all left are just learned reponses to stimuli, with extremely crude pattern recognition. And yes, to some degree this applies to those inceasingly speaking about walled-gardens.

so here in my hand I have a $100 bill. How do I turn it into Dogecoin??

Well, if you literally mean cash in hand, you're going to have to do a bit of work. Much like with other crypto coins, you can sometimes find a local person who will do an in-person exchange[1]. Otherwise, you can use something like the dogemarket subreddit[2] to do an exchange using Paypal, Google Wallet, etc. Another option is to link a bank account to a service like Vault of Satoshi[3] and make a USD/Doge trade there.

[1] http://www.dogesnearme.com/

[2] http://www.reddit.com/r/dogemarket

[3] https://www.vaultofsatoshi.com/

Curious as to why you didn't jut say "you can directly buy Dogecoin for $100 USD on a website called Vault of Satoshi." Instead, you opened up your longwinded response with "doing a bit of work" and other mumbo jumbo, leaving the direct answer as a marginal note at the end (just "another option" in your words.)

Edit: the most challenging part would be going to a bank to deposit the physical Franklin, if the end user didn't have a fiat in an account already.

The options are listed in order of increasing difficulty. Vault of Satoshi requires verification of users, which means sending them personal information and waiting for it to be processed. Once you've jumped through all the hoops, it's easy. Finding someone to meet you at the coffee shop and exchange the $100 in person is potentially the quickest and easiest, assuming such persons exist in your area. The PayPal/Wallet option is somewhere in the middle.

All that having been said, _I'm_ a bit curious why you felt the need to bitch about someone giving a detailed answer. I wonder at the intellect that labels four sentences as long-winded.

And this comment here explains why Apple didnt remove bitcoin wallet apps because it will compete with their rumored future payments platform.

Cryptocurrency is not in a state ready for mainstream adoption.

"I have a $100 bill in my hand. How do I turn this into an anonymous Swiss bank account?"

Clearly, CHF is not in a state ready for mainstream adoption.

That design looks familiar http://liber.io/

because its yellow? and has a hero?

The similarities defo end there

Both are using Bootstrap with what appears to be a theme similar to the Bootstrap's own site. Looks like less of a case of one copying the other, and more of both copying the default bootstrap site.

They both use the same 'Flatty' free bootstrap theme http://www.blacktie.co/demo/flatty/

that'd be it then!

They don't both use it. Liberio made their theme first, and "Black Tie Co" ripped it off and called it Flatty and had the balls to put it under a CC license.

Look at the CSS, it's ridiculous.

http://www.blacktie.co/2013/12/flatty-app-landing-page/

All site templates are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, he didn't include BlackTie.co credit

Misleading title.

No it's not; it's a Dogecoin app, in the app store, so the title is accurate.

Sure, it may need a clarification that it's a read-only app, but still.

Just because something is accurate doesn't mean it's not misleading. That it may need clarification would seem to be an indicator that it is in fact misleading.

I want to add my wallet without using the scanner.

Yet apple bans the bitcoin apps. Such travesty.

Wow. Much Cool! Sigh. Big Crash. But there in spirit.

I know it is not appropriate on HN but I can't resist: AUEHAUEHUAHEUAHEUHEUAHEUAHUEHAUEHUAHEUH WOW Apple! Such Apple... Many Apples...

So wise.

so wow. nice

The reason why this is worthy news is that you made it so. Hence, think twice unless you are Dogecoin lover, and if you are, mission accomplished. Many times things come from behind and win, watch the moon closely this time.

Icons/UI details could use a lot of work in this. Actually the website is much better designed than the actual app.

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