Apple has changed its policy to allow payments in virtual currencies in its App Store. It will be limited to a list of "approved" currencies, although this list has not been released yet. What impact will such a large established market have on exchange rates between the different currencies?
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So, right now, I'm currently sitting with mrcoolbp and martyb in meatspace working out the finer points of incorporation, and the future needs of SoylentNews. One thing that has come up is we really don't have a great idea of our actual usage numbers are. Slashcode has decent internal numbers which give us some rough numbers, but they're only really valid for logged-in users (which bypass the varnish cache), and we're not 100% sure they're accurate anyway. According to slash, we're averaging approximately 50-60k page views per day (I've included the statistics email below), but it doesn't help us in knowing what AC usage look like. According to varnish, we average roughly 400-500k connections per day, but that number is inflated since we're not using keep-alive or HTTP pipelining as of yet.
Furthermore, since we don't log IP addresses in access.log, and IP's run through Slash are turned into IPIDs, its hard to get an idea of where our userbase is (the general feeling is the vast majority of us are based in the United States, but even then, that's more because our peak hours of traffic are between 4 and 10 PM EST). We've wanted to get a better idea of what our traffic and userbase are, so we're asking permission from the community to install piWik, and embed its javascript tag in the footer of each page, which will give us a wide berth of solid information to work from.
Furthermore, since we don't log IP addresses in access.log, and IP's run through Slash are turned into IPIDs, its hard to get an idea of where our userbase is (the general feeling is the vast majority of us are based in the United States, but even then, that's more because our peak hours of traffic are between 4 and 10 PM EST). We've wanted to get a better idea of what our traffic and userbase are, so we're asking permission from the community to install piWik, and embed its javascript tag in the footer of each page, which will give us a wide berth of solid information to work from.
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Apple to Allow Virtual Currencies in App Store
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Alfred on Thursday June 05 2014, @02:36PM
Now I can finally use all my bitcoin* to anonymously buy something tangible (apps) with my apple ID.
/sarc
/IntentionalStupidity
I don't really see the win here. Are they doing this before android or something?
*or equivalent other
(Score: 2) by lhsi on Thursday June 05 2014, @02:42PM
I don't really see the win here. Are they doing this before android or something?
If anything they are playing catch up. From the BBC article:
(Score: 3, Interesting) by kaszz on Thursday June 05 2014, @02:54PM
In other words, Apple is being dragged to the market place. Those evil market forces that won't follow our dictatorship..
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Nerdfest on Thursday June 05 2014, @03:04PM
... and they want their damn 30%.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Tork on Thursday June 05 2014, @04:06PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Friday June 06 2014, @02:40AM
... that fact that there's no other options allowed?
(Score: 2) by Tork on Friday June 06 2014, @03:58AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Interesting) by lx on Thursday June 05 2014, @05:15PM
Apple stood alone in agressively banning crypto wallet apps. Presumably because they wouldn't get their usual percentage [niemanlab.org] on transactions.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Lemming on Thursday June 05 2014, @03:53PM
The exact wording in the App Store Review Guidelines [apple.com] states "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."
At first, it was not clear if this change would allow Bitcoin transferring apps in the app store. But a day later the wallet app by CoinJar, which had been removed from the app store in the past, re-appeared in the store. Strangely, the app is not available in the USA, but it is in 21 other countries. Links: Reddit thread [reddit.com] and article on Cointelegraph [cointelegraph.com].
Personally, I'm waiting for the apps from Blockchain.info [blockchain.info] or Coinbase to re-appear on the app store.
(Score: 2) by morgauxo on Thursday June 05 2014, @08:28PM
Whatever kinds of currency Apple accepts one thing is for sure.. it will be a larger amount than to purchase the same app for Android!