SHORTLY AFTER UPDATING its App Store Review guidelines regarding virtual currencies, the first bitcoin trading app has been approved for the App Store.
The app, named Coin Pocket, allows users to send and receive bitcoin, check the price and collect private keys into a single spot and encrypt them.
Before the policy update, Apple had taken a hardline approach to apps that used virtual currencies, removing a number of apps that used virtual cash from its store.
The updated guidelines now allows virtual currencies to appear on the site with one major condition: That they comply with both state and federal laws for the territories in which the app functions.
The vast majority of bitcoin and cryptocurrency apps appear on Android and Windows Phone devices instead, but Apple’s policy change paves the way for similar apps to appear on iOS.
The mining of new bitcoin has recently with the discovery that one entity has supplied more than half of the computational power required to mint new bitcoins, Ars Technica reports.
Researchers from Cornell University found that on five separate occasions beginning 3 June, one single mining pool named GHash performed more than 51% of the currency’s hashing – the cryptographic process required to mint bitcoin – for periods as long as 12 hours.
Concerns have been raised over this development since majority control over bitcoin creation could end up undermining its security and reliability, such as demanding higher fees from people with large holdings or reject competing miners’ transactions.
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