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Apple's App Store Guidelines Now Allow for 'Approved' Virtual Currencies in Apps

Bloomedis said:
Insane. Bitcoin is backed by nothing.
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maybe, but this is probably to save on currency conversion costs instead of using your own funny money like the old MS tokens on xbox live and other similar things

i doubt they will actually use bitcoin as real money
 
eiprol said:
:eek:
This is HUGE for bitcoin... Given the past attitude of Apple against it
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its not really that huge given the legal caveat. Many areas are still developing their laws and all it takes is for someone to ban bit coins in that area for an app to be pulled or at least have geographical restrictions put on it.
 
If anyone wants to try getting fractions of Bitcoins for free, here's my referral links. I'm only listing websites from which I have received multiple payments so you know they are legit.

CoinAd (daily ads)

Daily Bitcoins (you can play every hour)

FreeBitco.in (you can play every hour)

And if someone is interested in other alternative "Scrypt"-type currencies, here are my referrals for LiteCoin and Dogecoin websites:

LTC4You (you can play every hour)

FreeDoge.co.in (you can play every hour)

The current value of what you can get from these websites is only a few dollars per month (unless you roll a high score on FreeBitco.in), but then again Bitcoin was only worth a few cents when it started about five years ago.
 
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Ultimately, bitcoin is an illegal activity person's best friend:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-sickening-videos-of-child-abuse-9274188.html

http://lawstreetmedia.com/news/headlines/bitcoin-why-is-it-prone-to-criminal-activity/

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2013-11-18/are-bitcoins-the-criminal-s-best-friend-

http://ivn.us/2014/01/13/bitcoin-investigated-around-world-potential-criminal-activity/

Of course, traditional currency and coinage have been used for illegal activities but they had flaws for criminals in that a lot of it is traceable. In general, I'm against things that make it easier for criminals to profit from their tasks.

Now I bet that people will reply to attack my stance and show how bitcoin isn't responsible, blah blah blah. Whatever. Doesn't make it a good idea.
 
sjjohnston said:
FIAT currency is backed by the total production of your countries economy, i.e., it's GDP (gross domestic product). Bitcoin is backed by our collective imaginations - it's pure speculation, with 1/2 of all Bitcoins owned by less than 1,000 people. Somebody is making money on Bitcoins - but as in a casino, everyone else loses.

http://stephenjohnjohnston.com/2014/05/30/bitcoin-tulips/
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Can you trade the fiat currency at a fixed exchange rate for a portion of the GDP of the country? I don't think you can. The currency isn't backed by anything. But we, as a society, have agreed to give the currency value. Because of that collective decision it has value. Just like we give baseball cards value. Both the currency and the baseball cards can be traded for other goods. Sometimes currency and baseball cards lose value when the general population decides they have decreased value.

I don't see that big a difference with bitcoin. It will have value as long as there are enough people out there who perceive it to have value. In theory that value can't be undermined by anyone creating many bitcoins quickly. In practice, I suspect, the value can be destroyed by the handful of folks who hold most of the bitcoins simply dumping them on the market. But as long as the bitcoins for sale are kept controlled, there is a chance that the value can be maintained.
 
Cuban Missles said:
Since you are on the bandwagon, could you please explain? I don't understand the point of bitcoin as opposed to any other currency. With PayPal or credit card I can already pay for anything I want online. What does bitcoin get me? The only thing I have seen so far is a Ponzi pyramid type problem where people who get them early are trying to make money off them versus using them as actual currency. Now I will admit that in general I am clueless of this thing called bitcoin so my perception could be off, so please don't go after my ignorance (as I admit to it readily), but please tell me why I should leverage this new currency and what its value is to me as a consumer. Thank you.
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I think Bruce Fenton put it well:
http://www.fentonreport.com/bitcoin...st-me-less-than-a-dollar-no-other-system-come

Bitcoin has some pros that are just too great to ignore:
1. Neutrality, anyone can send to anyone. Even my cat and fridge can have a bitcoin wallet. Most people/stuff in the world cant get a bank account
2. Low transaction fees. I can send $1M for free to anyone
3. Fast. Transactions takes seconds and are confirmed in 10min, compared to VISA which takes days to confirm
4. Limited money supply, while other currencies are designed to lose value over time, bitcoin is not designed to lose value over time.
5. Programmable, smart people will do cool stuff in the future


Imo the best way to understand bitcoin is get some. It is kind of hard because cash was not designed to be used on the internet and once you have them you will be like "was this all?", but in a good way.

Check out www.just-dice.com. Investors there are paid every second. Compare that to stocks of other casinos where investors get paid once a year. That is the power of digitalization of money.

Imo like cameras and calculators eventually became digital, so will likely money. Sure some will still use analog cameras and calculators, but most people will prefer the digital ones.
 
sjjohnston said:
FIAT currency is backed by the total production of your countries economy, i.e., it's GDP (gross domestic product). Bitcoin is backed by our collective imaginations - it's pure speculation, with 1/2 of all Bitcoins owned by less than 1,000 people. Somebody is making money on Bitcoins - but as in a casino, everyone else loses.

http://stephenjohnjohnston.com/2014/05/30/bitcoin-tulips/
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Statistically, that's better odds for the little guy versus ACTUAL MONEY in the USA. The 1% hold something like 80% of the dollars in the USA.
 
mactumors said:
Right now, you are right. It's not as convenient as a credit card to you. The only advantage I can think of is that if you wanted to buy something online, you can just push a button and send the person bitcoin, instead of having to create an account and put in your credit card info and billing address. If you don't trust the person you are paying then you don't have to worry about them stealing your credit card number. Another advantage to you right now might be just to have it as an investment. It might be worth more next year.

The real benefits right now are for merchants, who don't have to pay credit card processing fees and don't have to worry about chargebacks or fraud. If you were an etsy seller then you would make more money accepting bitcoin. Because of that, you might see merchants offer a discount for paying with bitcoin in the future.

For people who are not you, there are much greater benefits. If you wanted to send money overseas, it's an expensive complicated process. With bitcoin, it's instant and free. Also, not everyone in every country has a stable local currency, or access to the kind of banking that you have. Those people might not be able to get a credit card. Bitcoin could be a big deal for them.

Bitcoin is really a big promise. Banks around the world are complicated and sending money between them is expensive. There are loads of different currencies. Bitcoin could be a global currency accepted anywhere in the world. Credit cards today are expensive for merchants and terrible for fraud and theft. In the age of the internet, Visa is an unnecessary middleman that bitcoin could do away with.

Anyway... That's a taste of why people are jumping on the bandwagon. In technology, when someone invents a more efficient way to do something, it puts the other guys out of business. The hope is that bitcoin can disrupt finance in the same way, because it really is cheaper and more efficient.

That's just a taste. It's also really amazing to me how the currency works and how it is secured. It's an amazing accomplishment for encryption and networking. That's why some people are excited about it from a purely tech angle.
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Thanks for the low down. I've been wondering about all that too. I've been wondering about the origination of bitcoin and how it worked for awhile now and I finally got around to reading about it. Spent the last two hours. It is fascinating.
 
I'm holding out for the combination Kellogs-Hasbro-Apple currency. APPLE BUCKS. Applejack Approved. Currency for Bucking everything!
 
I wonder if this will allow sending non-free gifts to people in apps now. I use a messaging app called LINE, and they have these adorable stickers you can use while chatting with people, many of which are free, but they also have paid ones for two dollars a piece. On the Android app you can either purchase a sticker set for yourself, or purchase one for someone else and gift it to them, but this gift option is not present on the iOS version for paid stickers, only for free stickers, because it goes against Apple's in-app purchases policies. If Apple allows apps to have virtual currency, I can see one being able to buy "LINE bucks" within the app and then applying these "LINE bucks" towards stickers to gift to other people.
 
nwcs said:
Ultimately, bitcoin is an illegal activity person's best friend:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-sickening-videos-of-child-abuse-9274188.html

http://lawstreetmedia.com/news/headlines/bitcoin-why-is-it-prone-to-criminal-activity/

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2013-11-18/are-bitcoins-the-criminal-s-best-friend-

http://ivn.us/2014/01/13/bitcoin-investigated-around-world-potential-criminal-activity/

Of course, traditional currency and coinage have been used for illegal activities but they had flaws for criminals in that a lot of it is traceable. In general, I'm against things that make it easier for criminals to profit from their tasks.

Now I bet that people will reply to attack my stance and show how bitcoin isn't responsible, blah blah blah. Whatever. Doesn't make it a good idea.
Click to expand...

Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank; Give a man a bank and can rob the world
 
roadbloc said:
Trust. No serious people trust bankers.
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I would trust Chase over Mt Gox.

DennisD7 said:
It's backed by something
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It is backed by the value of factoring prime numbers that are on an elliptic curve.

subjonas said:
What does this mean?
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Bit Coin is programmable in that you can use it to turn on the lights in your living room if you have a Hue system. :) (You might be able to create a bot, give it a few thousand dollars and let it play the dollars to Bit Coin game until it goes broke.)
 
Apple's App Store Guidelines Now Allow for 'Approved' Virtual Currencies in Apps

The payment system has not seen much innovation since credit cards and PayPal.

Bitcoin may not be the last global decentralized digital crypto currency but it's the best one we have currently with some momentum,

It could of course end up being a bubble but currently it has some serious backers, much more serious than you and me unless you are:

Jerry Yang, founder of yahoo who has invested in btc startup

Peter thiel, founder of PayPal who has invested in btc startup

The Facebook guy whose name is difficult to pronounce from sriranka who holds a lot of bitcoins

Marc Andreessen of a Andreessen Horowitz

Supposedly Richard Branson of virgin

There are top 3 bank's mobile payment div executives who were at least of the opinion that digital currency will be here to stay as well.

I don't know how much you guys think about currency but I know I don't spend as much time as these guys thinking about it.
 
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If Apple likes virtual stuff, I wouldn't mind paying by iTunes credit for in-App too for purchases instead/or in addition to real money,
 
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