Bitcoin Forum

Google will no longer allow cryptocurrency mining apps on the Android Play Store

Earlier this year, the search engine giant banned crypto mining extensions from the Chrome Web Store, including the ones that were solely focused on mining. In addition, Google updated its Financial Services Policy last month prohibiting ads relating to “Cryptocurrencies and related content (including but not limited to initial coin offerings, cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency wallets, and cryptocurrency trading advice)”.

The recently updated Play Store developer policy states:

“We don’t allow apps that mine cryptocurrency on devices. We permit apps that remotely manage the mining of cryptocurrency.”

See more: https://news.bitzamp.com/google-play-officially-bans-cryptocurrency-miners/ (https://news.bitzamp.com/google-play-officially-bans-cryptocurrency-miners/)

on one hand there were too many rogue and plain scam apps that would do bad things to your devices
on the other hand,some of the apps that are now no longer available
were the reasons some people learned about bitcoins,mining and cryptocurrencies in general
if I were Google I'd rather focus on removing scam apps faster,some of them manage to sit there for days and get hundreds of thousands of downloads

I'm seeing too many people attempting to frame this as negative news for Bitcoin.  It's good news.  This is only going to affect altcoins and creators of malware who steal processing power from unassuming device owners.  The average person might become more receptive to crypto if nefarious people weren't constantly trying to get them to install apps that slow down their phones and tablets.

This.

Cryptocurrency ad bans were mostly a good thing too, because a ton of those ads were malicious stuff like cloud mining, ponzi's, malware and ICO scams. The few legit ads were probably exchanges, but then again, I don't think it's good for the ecosystem to have newcomers introduced to cryptocurrency via exchanges and ads rather than some decent educational materials that learn them all the necessary basics. Often those noobs become victims of hacks, scams, poor investment decisions and other misfortunes.

Mining on cell phones is totally ridiculous. For this reason it's a very important step. On the other hand, in Google Play Store you can still find suspicious and scam applications. Google should more control over the applications on its store.

We can see the impact of Google decisions a few months ago, they decided to ban cryptocurrency advertising on their platform or facebook and twitter decisions that ban as well but the impact now they have succeeded in reducing fraud in the name of cryptocurrency. I guess they have a good way to make cryptocurrencies expand without the negative things that make new users or old users afraid to have cryptocurrency. We will see the impact of Google Play Officially Bans Cryptocurrency Miner's decision.

It is not really mining that happens but more or less a simulated process of mining. Not like what GPU do else the mobile phone would just overheat in minutes and crash as they can not handle real mining.

We as oldies Bitcoin users know about such apps and how ridiculous it looks like when it "mines" cryptocurrencies. I tried once to convince a friend how stupid he looks with mining more than $300 in few days with an app in medium end phone. He didn't trust me until he was scammed and got nothing :-\
Best thing Google did so far for cryptocurrencies.

Currently, I'm still exploiting ETN on my Android device. Maybe the information you give is just a rumor. I just heard that Google Play banned for apps that contain ads related to ICO projects

if its an app that you have installed already then how Google can influence that?
they were supposed to ban the mining apps along with the ICO related ads and cryptocurrency related ads in general
think in this particular case they threw the baby with the bath water
they will both lose alot of income from those adds,scam projects will find a way to advertise
but legit crypta projects will have less exposure

That's right because they don't get much money on those apps. They want gaming apps that will force kids to steal their parents' credit card just to level up their account quickly. Google Play don't want you to make money through mining , they want us to make money for them through their offers.

Anything that narrows options for shitcoiners is alright by me. Their avenues are contracting pretty rapidly. By the time another bubble comes along this should have a decent effect in suppressing the absolute junk trying to tempt people.

Well, lesson learned for your friend then. Many fraudsters took the opportunity to scam people because many doesn't care that much if it is really mining or not as long as they are earning money from it and it is giving them coins every few days which is somewhat ridiculous because it is too good to be true. It is an eye opener to those people who easily believe those scam so it is good that google bans cryptocurrency miners because they are not really miners, right?

I can still see so many people advertising "cryptocurrency mining" in facebook and twitter though and many still believe them so good luck to those who joined it. I tried commenting to one before but they disregard my warning so I just let them be and let them learned their lesson.

My question is why is google not willing to put in the manual work required to separate malware from the real thing? If I search for a mining app I know exactly what I am looking for, Google doesn't have to make the decision for me whether its harmful for my device or not. From what I believe is Google percieves cryptos as some sort of threat to it and Google likes to automate things which in these apps require a manual checkup.

Very well said. If you are spending too much time on different crypto social media groups, there's too much deception on mining.

They don't care about those apps but it's helping the people who are exploring through these apps to stop the spread of malware.

Do you really believe that you can make much with these framed mining apps?

This decision is positive although it came too late.
In the long-term, mining Bitcoin would be impossible + mining altcoins are adding more shit to this technology, waste of phone resources & time.
If you are a newbie, download an application for bitcoin mining and did not take advantage of any of that. I will blame bitcoin and not those scammers.

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I do not know why Google does not review these applications "make sure they do not affect on my phone" before allowed to use

First and Foremost i dont even believe into those apps that claims to mine crypto on your own device because i do usually see these stuffs over my feed specially on crypto-related groups on Facebook or on other medium.
If they do then its a total fraud or just they are being used up by the app creator itself. Good thing that they do make such ban to prevent people on falling into things that really dont work at all on the very first place and just totally harming their devices itself.

who are these freaks.. Attempting mining on mobiles ??? ;D

I will not be quick to blame and castigate Google for taking this decision because they surely know what is at stake and believe this is the right step to take thanks to the myriad of apps on Google store that comes with several promises without doing anything yet you see several bought comments to deceive someone downloading the shit app then uninstall immediately. Aside from mobile wallets android version, every other app related to crypto currency to me, have performed below expectation. They accepted it before, now they are saying no, its just ok to accept their decision and its not total which means it can be reviewed as at when due. I still wonder how long its going to take those who use apps to mine satoshis for it to be worth something tangible eventually.

I wonder which part of this news report is true, as I still see the mobile apps MinerGate as well as Pickaxe Mobile Miner available for download in the Google Playstore. Or is there something I am not getting in the news? Will they only ban upcoming mobile miners and let the existing ones be available for download in the Playstore? Or they simply haven't remove the apps yet?

Questions and clarifications aside, for people thinking about using their phones to mine and earn cryptocurrencies please don't do it, not unless you are using a 2nd hand phone that you are not using anymore, as making your main phone as a mobile miner will do more harm compared to what you will earn. The burden your phone gets while it is mining is almost equivalent as doing a non-stop full benchmark test to your phone, I did it in the past and it only shortened the life of my phone tremendously, the heat and stress it generates will quickly damage your phone permanently.

I don't see anything negative here as you can't treat cell phone mining as something profitable. There are only 2 people that might be interested in downloading such miners.
1. Newbies who think they can profit. They will end up overheating their phones and earning pennies.
2. Hackers and malware creators who make money on other people's mistakes.

It's so ridiculous mining on a phone. This can definitely shorten the life of phones. Google has taken such steps thinking about its own users. So this decision is absolutely correct.

it is ridiculous to some,to some it is an extra little cent,standards of life are different in different countries
it is not profitable by any means and in most cases-silly to mine on your phone
but to many this could be a way to learn about cryptocurrencies
you think Google is absolutely correct,I don't think it is absolutely correct to simply ban ALL cryptocurrency related adds and aps
mind you it is not only miners we are talking about here,it is a much wider array of apps

Mining cryptocurrency on the phone is certainly funny looks and sounds. But that actually deal only with the newcomers, who only know what cryptocurrency is.
But as far as I can see, Google is not against it.

It is, some are thinking that it can sustain some of their needs for earning that extra with it but it's not worth it.
I've seen newbies that are thinking that it would be enough for them to stay on this because they didn't know anything about it.
They just tried to mine with their phone, it's like the old days where most of us are into faucets and now new generations are into phone mining.

That is so true, for me ban like this could not be even seen after short or long time, there should be no changes after that moves from google.