One of my terrible regrets is that I didn’t hop on the Bitcoin train when I had the chance. I read about it, created an account, had one of my computers generate some coin (took forever), and decided it wasn’t worth my time to fart around with unrecognized virtual currency. If I had left that computer running, who knows what that would be worth now. Who knew? Whether it lasts or not is to be seen, but it is certainly getting a lot of attention now. If you’re not up to speed on the whole internet bit trading thing, start with this article over at The Apple Core for more info and the recent explosion of Bitcoin mining.
Back to how this connects to Apple. As Bitcoin has gained popularity, it was only natural that programmers would start creating easy-to-use Bitcoin clients to run on their computers. Since Apple doesn’t have complete control of your Mac (yet), you can run these mining apps such as the Bitcoin Project’s app or MacMiner, but you won’t find these in the Mac App Store. We know this because Apple recently pulled a number of Bitcoin related apps from the App Store for iPhone and iPad. Business Insider reports that Apple has recently passed judgement on these apps and it isn’t good.
“Coinbase and Gliph are two higher-profile companies dealing in Bitcoin – Coinbase is a Bitcoin exchange for buying and selling the digital currency, and Gliph, a mobile payments app set up to handle Bitcoin transactions. The Coinbase app was removed from the App Store entirely and Apple requested that Gliph get rid of its app’s Bitcoin functionality, despite letting it operate unencumbered for the previous seven months.”
The speculation is that Apple wants to distance itself from the fledgling digital currency or be considered to be supporting it, considering it has been met with some controversy and still might be a flash-in-the-pan. Personally, I hope Bitcoin fizzles so I don’t have to feel bad about not cashing in.