Apple's App Store Officially Bans Cryptocurrency Mining (venturebeat.com) 39
Apple has updated the App Store's Review Guidelines to explicitly ban on-device mining across any type of app, and all of Apple's platforms. The new section 3.1.5 (b), titled Cryptocurrencies, provides five clear rules for what will and won't be allowed in macOS, iOS, tvOS, and watchOS apps going forward. VentureBeat reports: The upshot of the new rules is that while Apple will permit cryptocurrencies to exist on its platforms, it's adding requirements to stop scammers and individuals from exploiting App Store customers, while making explicit that it's blocking developers from eating Apple device processing power for mining activities. As AppleInsider notes, the Review Guidelines were previously less concerned with cryptocurrencies, allowing an app to facilitate crypto and ICO transactions if it complied with the laws in the app's distributed territories.
Since the App Store is virtually the only place to acquire software for iPhones, iPads, iPod touches, Apple TVs, and Apple Watches, Apple's decision will effectively end crypto mining on those devices. On macOS, however, users will continue to be able to acquire apps outside of the Mac App Store, enabling mining and other activities to continue without Apple's seal of approval.
Since the App Store is virtually the only place to acquire software for iPhones, iPads, iPod touches, Apple TVs, and Apple Watches, Apple's decision will effectively end crypto mining on those devices. On macOS, however, users will continue to be able to acquire apps outside of the Mac App Store, enabling mining and other activities to continue without Apple's seal of approval.
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Make 'murika Greedy Again.
Re: The mining problem (Score:3)
Depends on the coin. It's not all that crazy to think a mobile platform as an alternative to ads could pull in enough revenue from mining and selling alt coins to be a viable product.
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Nearly 5 years ago, there was a plugin for Unity (game engine) to mine Bitcoin [macrumors.com]. Not sure if it was ever deployed, but your device was already running something intensive, so the miner would be hidden among the normal execution of the game anyways.
I think this was basically just prior to the bitcoin mania. Not sure if it ever le
Re: The mining problem (Score:2)
Running a miner surreptitiously while playing a game which already taxes your machine is just not the right use case. Running a miner on a webpage while you're reading an article instead of showing ads is totally reasonable.
Re:The mining problem (Score:5, Insightful)
The freedom to run what you want on your own devices
That's not really what is going on here. These are scumbag app developers offering "free" apps that run miners in the background. The user is either not informed, or informed in fine print that nobody reads. The device owners don't even know anything is going on until they notice their phone is unusually hot and the battery is dead.
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Huh? This actually concerns your freedom to run what you want on other people's devices.
Which is very likely a freedom that the owners of said devices would prefer that you not have.
You can run whatever software you want (Score:5, Insightful)
It's my device, I should be able to run whatever I want.
So what is stopping you? Just because Apple isn't cooperating with you is irrelevant. As you said it's your hardware so wipe off iOS and put whatever idiotic mining software or malware you want on it. Hell, run Android on an iPhone [macworld.co.uk] if you want.
That's why I prefer Android.
A distinction without a difference. If you like Android better that's fine but it doesn't change the fact that you own the hardware and you can compile and run whatever software you want on it. If you want to argue that Apple should cooperate with you running whatever software you want, then you have an argument. It's a walled garden with all that entails. But if your argument is that you should be allowed to run whatever software you want then your argument is moot because you already have that right. The flipside is that Apple is not and should not be under any obligation to cooperate with you if they don't think it is in their interest to do so.
But if they had let Electroneum in they'd have to let them all into the store or they'd be picking winners and losers, so I guess it had to be all or none.
That's kind of the point. Most of the activity surrounding cryptocurrency mining is nothing more than transparent get rich quick scams. There also is quite a lot of organized criminal activity surrounding them including bitcoin. While there is undoubtedly some amount of honest activity, there is no practical way for Apple to determine who is "honest" and who isn't. Allowing such software also would tend to make their devices perform like shit and Apple would of course get blamed for this. Apple isn't stupid so it makes sense to ban all mining software because there is no upside for them nor for virtually any of their users.
If you want to do this sort of mining on a mobile phone for whatever reason buy some other sort of phone. I assure you nobody will care - Apple least of all.
Re:You can run whatever software you want (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, if you want to run a miner on an iPhone, write an app and install it. Apple even allows installing on one device (the one registered with the developer's account) for free. Apple's ban is very much on running miners on other people's devices.
Slight correction - macOS -App Store- applications (Score:2)
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The headline says the app store has banned cryptocurrency mining. That is still correct, which means you are still wrong.
Too Stupid (Score:1)
As it is prone to, Apple has decided that its customers are too stupid to do this. Yes, some will find a way by compiling code to do it but the inability to do that is not a definition of stupid. This sort of thing plays into the hands of totalitarian governments (EG Chinese, N Korean etc), over protective governments (US, UK etc) and criminal organisations (various TLA's for example)
Alternatively, is this just another case of "we know better than you what you want to do"?
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As it is prone to, Apple has decided that its customers are too stupid to do this. Yes, some will find a way by compiling code to do it but the inability to do that is not a definition of stupid. This sort of thing plays into the hands of totalitarian governments (EG Chinese, N Korean etc), over protective governments (US, UK etc) and criminal organisations (various TLA's for example)
Alternatively, is this just another case of "we know better than you what you want to do"?
Or maybe the reason is just what it says in the summary, that Apple is:
... When it blocked Calendar 2 in March, Apple cited section 2.4.2 of its Review Guidelines, noting that a background process to mine currencies in exchange for access to premium features ran afoul of its device resource drain restrictions ... Design your app to use power efficiently. Apps should not rapidly drain battery, generate excessive heat, or
"blocking developers from eating Apple device processing power for mining activities
Protecting interests (Score:3)
As it is prone to, Apple has decided that its customers are too stupid to do this.
How is preventing a bunch of fraudulent scammers from hijacking people's computers in any way a statement that users are "too stupid"? If you want to run mining software knock yourself out. Nothing is preventing you from doing it - you just can't get it through the App Store. Go compile the software yourself if its important to you. Neither Apple nor the vast majority of their customers have anything to gain by permitting this sort of crap in the App Store. You know damn well that these apps would chew
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The problem is the app store. Apple should not be allowed to be the sole vendor. By law, they should be forced to support other stores. There is absolutely no reason to allow Apple to continue on this path.
Yes, Comrade.
Pathetic whiners (Score:2)
The problem is the app store. Apple should not be allowed to be the sole vendor.
Why? Because it bothers you? It's their product and they can do what they want. If you don't like it buy something else. And take your pathetic whining with you. Apple owes you nothing.
By law, they should be forced to support other stores.
I'm thinking you must be trolling because otherwise you are retarded. "By law"? They don't even have a majority of the smartphone market so what would be the point of that? Go buy Android or something else if you don't like it. Nobody is putting a gun to your head and forcing you to buy a single product from Apple.
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Gotta love it! (Score:1)
Different in many ways that matter (Score:2)
Are (any) fiat-currency and (any) cryptocurrency really equivalent, as cryptocurrency fans claim?
For example, US Dollar and Bitcoin are really equals?
Clearly no they are not equivalent. Anyone who claims otherwise is not dealing in objective facts. That's not to say that cryptocurrencies are in principle intrinsically inferior but in actual practice thus far they definitely are for most legal transactions and are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Liquidity, risk, utility as store of value, transaction costs, volatility, inflation, and many more features have wildly different profiles between fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies. In an