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I assume that someone may have tried to upload a Bitcoin app and it was rejected, but does anyone have information on what specific rules Bitcoin-related applications violate on the App Store?

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As far as I know, there have been no submissions of Bitcoin apps to the Mac App Store.

A Bitcoin app for iOS was submitted to the App Store in May 2011 by Ehud Ben-Reiven. He reported that it was rejected because "...it involves intermediate currency...". He subsequently open-sourced the code, bitcoinApp, but, as of this writing, it hasn't been updated in years.

Blockchain.info had some success in submitting an Blockchain app which uses the site's API to do all the heavy work. However, it was removed without reason in May 2012 and later restored in August 2012. This app relies on Blockchain.info as a hosted wallet, though, and is not a fat client.

TL;DR Apple disallows Bitcoin clients because it considers Bitcoin to be an "intermediate currency".

Speculative TL;DR Apple disallows Bitcoin clients directly because it's a payments system that circumvents Apple's desire to take a cut of all money that flows within its app ecosystem. It's not known how Venmo and other payment networks are allowed to circumvent that, if they even do.

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  • I might be misreading the question but it seems to be about MacOSX as opposed to iOS.
    – David Perry
    Nov 19, 2012 at 6:42
  • Good point. I would think, though, that the same principles apply since Apple would likely apply the same rules to the App Store for Mac as it does the (iTunes/iOS) App Store.
    – Colin Dean
    Nov 19, 2012 at 18:25
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    Yes, but the technical challenge of porting QT to iOS would be negated :)
    – David Perry
    Nov 19, 2012 at 18:41
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    Good point. I moved that comment to here: Bitcoin-QT itself is tightly coupled to the QT GUI framework. There is as of November 2012 an effort to port QT to iOS by Mediator Software as well as an internal iOS effort by the QT team, but the latter hasn't seen much development since mid-2011. I'm speculating here, but it is unlikely that there would be an effort from the central bitcoin team to port Bitcoin-QT to iOS.
    – Colin Dean
    Nov 19, 2012 at 20:01
  • @ColinDean, but the OP talked about MacOS, not iOS, and AFAIK QT is compatible with MacOSX today.
    – knocte
    Apr 13, 2013 at 10:54

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