New App Store Review Update Includes Cryptocurrency Guidelines

There’s no denying that digital assets are starting to permeate mainstream markets, with CFTC officials and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) CEO, Jamie Dimon among those notably singing the praises of blockchain and cryptocurrencies in recent weeks. With this new wave of change washing over the world, more and more companies are having to increase the parameters of their products and services to include this increasingly adopted technology.

This week US multinational tech giant and the world’s 3rd most valuable company, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), becomes the next global super force to expand it’s App Store guidelines to include cryptocurrencies. The new directions can be found under 3.1.5 (b) Cryptocurrencies of the ‘App Store Review Guidelines’ and include new measures on the App Store Review process;

• (i) Wallets: Apps may facilitate virtual currency storage, provided they are offered by developers enrolled as an organization.
• (ii) Mining: Apps may not mine for cryptocurrencies unless the processing is performed off device (e.g. cloud-based mining).
• (iii) Exchanges: Apps may facilitate transactions or transmissions of cryptocurrency on an approved exchange, provided they are offered by the exchange itself.
• (iv) Initial Coin Offerings: Apps facilitating Initial Coin Offerings (“ICOs”), cryptocurrency futures trading, and other crypto-securities or quasi-securities trading must come from established banks, securities firms, futures commission merchants (“FCM”), or other approved financial institutions and must comply with all applicable law.
• (v) Cryptocurrency apps may not offer currency for completing tasks, such as downloading other apps, encouraging other users to download, posting to social networks, etc.

Surprisingly these guidelines cover an extensive range of digital asset features, allowing app developers to facilitate crypto trading via exchanges, mobile crypto storage and even legally compliant Initial Coin Offerings in newly created applications.

In 2.4 Hardware Compatibility ( 2.4.2) the guidelines also extend to expressly restrict the implementation of crypto-mining and any background process that significantly drains battery life and CPUs.

• Design your app to use power efficiently. Apps should not rapidly drain battery, generate excessive heat, or put unnecessary strain on device resources. Apps, including any third party advertisements displayed within them, may not run unrelated background processes, such as cryptocurrency mining.

Big or small, new regulatory measures are never usually welcomed by the global crypto community, however this update represents a huge success for digital assets; as one of the largest companies in the world recognises their economic value and the need to expand their services to safely incorporate them.

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With each new begrudging acceptance of cryptocurrencies, we take one step closer toward reaching mass market adoption as the world’s primary digital payment system.