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The Demise of BitPak
About three weeks ago, I received notification that BitPak, the first Bitcoin wallet for iOS, had been removed from the Apple App store. I had not been given any reason why, just a simple electronic notification that it had been done. I was traveling at the time, and did not have the time to contact Apple to inquire about this.
About a week later, someone from Apple called me on the phone to let me know that BitPak had been removed from the App Store. The guy on the phone sounded like a nervous teenager. I asked him why this had happened, and he said "Because that Bitcoin thing is not legal in all jurisdictions for which BitPak is for sale". I inquired as to which jurisdictions Bitcoin was deemed to be illlegal in, and he told me "that is up to you to figure out". I asked him which laws Bitcoin violated, and again, he replied that "that is up to you to determine". I told the kid on the phone that he has in fact told me nothing and was most unhelpful.
Unfortunately, my other business ventures are taking up all of my time and resources, and this I no longer have the time to deal with this. I would have continued BitPak development had the app stayed in the store, but with it gone, I see little point. I had been working on a revision which would have put the block chain in the cloud. That development has now ceased.
So I am willing to pass this on to whomever may be interested in picking BitPak up and doing something with it. I have put a significant amount of money intogetting BitPak developed, and I have not come close to recoupign that investment. If someone has a commercial idea for BitPak, I'll happily sell it for a royalty. If not, I'll post the code somewhere with an opensource license.
I still believe that the most logical place for a Bitcoin wallet to reside is on the mobile phone. it is extremely unfortunate that Apple has chosen to take this stand. I know that there are people working on dedicated dongles to overcome this issue. And maybe that is the way this will play out.
Feel free to contact me if you have any idea for BitPak. And thank you for the support I received while it was live in the store.
All the best,
-Rob Sama
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cyberzac,
It won't write anything to the Dropbox account until it receives Bitcoins. Once your first bitcoins arrive, you'll see an entry.
It takes a while for the first bitcoins to show up. Leave it running in the foreground overnight, and they should be there by morning.
I'm happy to let someone audit the code. Contact me directly if interested.
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Hi,
The first coins you send to BitPak take a while to show up. Just leave BitPak on overnight and it will catch up, Once BitPak sees its first coins, it's relatively speedy thereafter.
Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any issues with BitPak.
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It backs up your wallet to Dropbox in an encrypted form, but you can only restore back to the same device, not to a different device.
BitPak also features an emergency send function. If for some reason you be piece your iPhone is about to be lost or stolen, you hit the emergency send button and it will send the entire contents of your wallet to a preordained "home" address.
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It could take up to a day before you see it in the app store.
You are correct that only verified Bitcoins show up. We may change this in future versions.
I understand your concern about stealing coins. I will consider opening the source when I make my development dollars back. But in the meantime, you should know that apple verifies my identity, and I make no effort at hiding who I am. If you think I'm stealing your Bitcoins, you know where I am.
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My app has been approved. BitPak, the bitcoin wallet for iOS is now available in the app store http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bitpak/id489248095?mt=8&ls=1. This is the first wallet for iOS approved. I would appreciate all the support I can get for it. The app is priced at $3.99, or roughly 1BTC. A video and FAQ is available at www.bitpak.com. I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has about it. Thanks |
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Hi. I'm Rob Sama, the guy behind BitPak and Ominous Megacorp. The 'Ominous' name is a bit of a joke, as the company is basically just me and some developers. I hope the name isn't too much of a put off. We just submitted to the app store yesterday. So it will take some time before they approve or I fight with apple over it. I felt it was important to have a native iPhone client, so I went ahead and designed the app and recruited some developers to build it. As built, the app certainly isn't perfect. It takes forever to download the blocks, though it's speedy once they're downloaded. We're workiing on using an online database instead of downloading blocks for version 2. I'm surprised this was discovered so quickly. Hopefully people will appreciate what went into making this. In the meantime, please visit my other website, www.bitcoindecals.com and get yourself a bitcoin bumper sticker ;-) Thanks, -Rob |
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So I started a new site, Bitcoin Decals, at www.bitcoindecals.com. I have two stickers for sale there: an oval international bumper sticker that says "BTC" and a transparent window decal saying "Bitcoin Accepted Here". I created this a a means of teaching myself how to use Bitcoin in an e-commerce environment, and also to make a little money. The stickers are very high quality. I'm only accepting bitcoins for payment:1 BTC for the oval sticker, and 1.5 BTC for the window sticker. Right now I'm only accepting domestic orders (United States), until I figure out what to charge for International shipping. I'm open to any suggestions you may have there.   |
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New alternative currency in use in Brazil: After school and on weekends, Carlos Leandro Peixoto de Abril sells ice cream made by his grandmother from a stoop alongside the family's cinder-block home.
Instead of Brazilian reais, though, the 11-year-old prefers payment in capivaris—a local currency emblazoned with the face of a giant rodent. Bills in hand, Carlos then heads to a local grocer and buys ingredients, at a special discount, for another batch of grandma's goods.
The capivari circulates only in this dusty, agricultural town 60 miles north of Rio de Janeiro. The money is an effort by the town, one of the poorest in southeastern Brazil, to encourage its 23,000 residents to spend locally.
Ten months after introduction of the capivari—named after the capybara, a pig-sized rodent common in a local river—the currency is lifting fortunes of local retailers and gnawing holes in the pockets of consumers. Capivaris pay for everything from haircuts to restaurant tabs to tithing at churches. The mayor even has plans to open a "Capivari Megastore," where local artisans and growers can showcase wares. Entire article available here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904583204576542851688284590.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_editorsPicks_2. |
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I agree viperjbm, it would be easy to do standard short sales. It was naked short sales I was doubting would be possible.
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How would that even work? Bitcoins safeguards kind of prevent that don't they? You'd need an exchange that allows you to sell Bitcoins that you haven't deposited for that to work. And even then, the exchange would quickly go belly up when people tried to get their Bitcoins out.
To me, one of the beauties of bitcoin is that is prevents this sort of thing. I could see the day when stock certificates are issued bitcoin style precisely to prevent naked short selling.
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I am having troubles getting this up and running as well. I have the plugin in the wpsc-merchants folder as indicated above. The plugin shows up in the dashboard and seems to be configurable. I have bitcoind running on the server, and I tested this by sending a bitocin to and from the server, so I know it's running. It's running on the same domain as the website, so i have it set to localhost, and the username and password match what's in the bitcoin.conf file. Yet when I go to check out with a shopping cart, it returns a blank screen. I figure that there must be a conflict somewhere, or that I have something misconfigured. Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance for the help.
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It seems to me that is S&P is to be criticized here it's for being late to acknowledge an obvious reality. The foul state of our country's financial affairs is in no small part driving my continued interest in Bitcon.
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I think radio would be more effective. Think anywhere those gold coin guys advertise would be the right market, no?
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It had occurred to me that using bitcoin tech, you could trade shares of stock in a company, instead of portions of currency. And the advantage would be that it would be I possible to naked short sell the shares.
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iPhone is a key piece of the puzzle IMHO. Agreed. |
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you sure do have a depressing, pessimistic attitude and that is probably why you just sit at home on your computer and nag and bitch about people who live their lives in a way that makes things happen. i hope this answers your question. Wow. I don't even know what to say to that. I'd be inclined to return the name calling volley, but that wouldn't be productive. I'm just saying that there's a difference between a meetup and a conference or expo. There's also a difference between constructive criticism and name calling. Apparently, not everyone knows the difference. I may or may not be planning something, but I'm relatively certain now that this is not the place to announce such a thing. |
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BitCon is a poor naming choince, given the accusations of Bitcoin being a ponzi scheme. And the website doesn't give much info. How much will it coat to attend?n how many exhibitors? Have hotel discounts been negotiated? There's a lot of work to a conference, and I'm not seeing the basics listed on the site...
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Seems to me this isnthe relevant clause from their terms: 11.4
Apps that use IAP to purchase credits or other currencies must consume those credits within the application How would that apply? So long as you're not selling bitcoins within the app, you should be fine no? Is there another clause that they're citing? Any idea how long ago this guys app was rejected? Was it before they recently loosened up their restrictions? My understanding is that the Paypal app was initially rejected as well... |
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