Apple Removes Bitcoin App 'Blockchain' From App Store

[dXTC]

Bitcoin is a great but early prototype of what a virtual currency can be. ...but its viability is severely limited going forward due to its mining threshold having been irreversibly surpassed. It has doomed itself.

I don't know about "severely limited", but yes, there is a limitation, and that's because...

The only miners that are capable of mining BTC at a profitable rate, given current difficulty levels, are purpose-built boxes that can't do anything else. As soon as difficulty levels rise enough to make them obsolete and unprofitable to keep running, they're worth no more than their scrap value.

...[snip]...

So yes, done wisely -- your mining rigs really can act like "money trees", but no -- this isn't something "sustainable" forever. It's all about people getting in on it while the opportunity window is there...

I see someone has found the source of one of my earlier statements...

I don't know the reason "why", but regarding the timing, maybe it has something to do with Bitcoin ATM being installed in Canada...

http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/money/Bitcoin+opens+business+Montreal/9469099/story.html

I've found other Bitcoin-related news tidbits at dailybitcoins.net.

 

[rboy505]

As someone who follows bitcoin, there isn't a single country where the currency (or any cryptocurrency) is illegal or outlawed.

Apple is also working on a major payment initiative...

FYI, Bitcoin is banned in China and Thailand. It's illegal to trade, import or export Bitcoins in Thailand. China government is not so extreme; it's not illegal to hold Bitcoins in China, but the you still can't trade with Bitcoin either.

Illegal in Russia. The Prosecutor General declared that any transaction by anyone, citizen or corporation, is banned. Illegal to use. That makes it illegal. It's semantic nitpicking by those who say it's NOT illegal where its use is banned but there are currently no penalties for holding. OK, fine. Go to Russia with your coins and make your point.

And now that the Charles Shrem case is beginning, who believes there won't be others? That in and of itself is no commentary on legality or rights but will surely cause more countries to begin harder stances rather than get tainted, so anyone who wouldn't expect other countries to ban all transactions is viewing through rose colored glasses.

 

[elgrecomac]

I bet the US government had a hand in this

This smells of one or more government agencies telling Apple to disassociate themselves from Bitcoin due to to potential use for nefarious reasons.

Just keepin it real...

 

[gnasher729]

As someone who follows bitcoin, there isn't a single country where the currency (or any cryptocurrency) is illegal or outlawed.

You may have been right when you posted, but you are wrong today. Bitcoin is now illegal in Russia.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/02/07/russia-bans-bitcoin/

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I just love these kind of posts. It's the same rhetoric in 1991 when the Internet gave birth. I remember ignorant comments like "The internet is just another BBS", "Why would anyone want to read the news on a computer... people want to hold something real and read it".

Got my first internet connection at home in 1995. So please don't claim that I'm against anything that is new - I can see the difference between something that is actually useful and something that isn't. And at that time, there was virtually no news on the internet, so nobody would have said "Why would anyone want to read the news on a computer".

Creating bitcoins wastes energy. The energy cost of creating bitcoin is about the same as the value of the bitcoin. One company is building a server that wastes 10 MW for creating bitcoins which is close to criminal waste of resources.

 

[ABCDEF-Hex]

A fool and their bitcoins are soon parted.

Mt. Gox exchange?
It should be the GRQ (Get Rich Quick) exchange.

 

[jclardy]

How terrible of Apple to have to follow the laws of countries where they do business.

They should, but rather than an unprovoked removal of the app they should have pulled it only from offending countries. Which I guess would be Russia.

 

[luba6a]

Bitcoin has been involved in really shady stuff.


Click me

and so is your useless paper dollar

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This smells of one or more government agencies telling Apple to disassociate themselves from Bitcoin due to to potential use for nefarious reasons.

Just keepin it real...

the financial Zionnazi mafia is behind that

 

[Luap]

When Apple is the company distributing the app, Apple will be the company held at least partially accountable when things go wrong. And Bitcoin isn't as secure as the folk behind it would have you believe.
I don't blame Apple for not wanting to be associated with a highly volatile, less than secure, non traceable monopoly money currency.

So is real money. What's your point?

So why bother at all then? You just implied yourself that it isn't 'real' money.

 

[Solomani]

When Apple is the company distributing the app, Apple will be the company held at least partially accountable when things go wrong. And Bitcoin isn't as secure as the folk behind it would have you believe.
I don't blame Apple for not wanting to be associated with a highly volatile, less than secure, non traceable monopoly money currency.

When things go wrong? When things go horribly horribly wrong?

Website of Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox offline

TOKYO (AP) — The website of major bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox is offline Tuesday amid reports it suffered a debilitating theft, a new setback for efforts to gain legitimacy for the virtual currency.

Apple says "I told ya so."