free source for bitcoin iPhone App

[udibr]

I've posted this to Apple:
"As part of your testing, you have transfered 0.5 bitcoin from the server I supplied you to your account. Current value in USD is about 1.5 please send the 0.5 bitcoin back to the server's address. Its either bitcoins dont have value and in this case the App should be approved or they do have value and in this case send me the half bitcoin back.

I would like to get from you some details on in what way this App is different from Venmo, Paypal, Square, among others."

[slurch]

That really sucks. I would consider jailbreaking my phone (*gasp*) for functionality in this realm. Apple really sucks in this regard...though I've been very happy with the hardware.

I've been extremely happy with the beta (though, in all honesty, I use it mostly for checking my wallet balance in bed).

Good luck getting this sorted.

[udibr]

there is no need to jailbreak - I can add up to 100 people on the "beta" program
and other developers can do the same

[njloof]

Plus, since it's open source, those of us with the iPhone SDK can compile it ourselves and save a beta license for somebody else

[slurch]

Good enough for now, then. Thanks for being so cool with everything. You really do have top notch support, too...especially for a noob such as myself.

[udibr]

Following Apple response I've uploaded the entire updated source for the App at https://github.com/udibr/bitcoinApp
Please send me updates using github pull request.

Thanks, Udi

[chrissignnow]

This is crap.  I am ready to go Android (although this will obviously not help me get an App).  I also do not know how they could allow money management applications and not this.  I also do not think it is an "intermediate" currency.  It is currency.

Keep up the good fight!  I am still planning on making a donation once I can buy up some bitcoins (through the roof right now!)

Chris

[udibr]

Its not clear it will be allowed on Android. Last week google removed all tethering Apps from Android markets.

This is the content of my last email to Apple (you are welcomed to send them your own):
====================================8<========================================
I've received from you a phone call to say the App was rejected.
In the phone call the Apple representative said the App can not be approved because it handles intermediate currency which is not allowed by the "App Store Review Guidelines"
I've went to your site http://developer.apple.com/appstore/resources/approval/guidelines.html
And tried to find this clause.
The only relevant section I found was "Purchasing and currencies" but it gave no reference to an "intermediate currency".
Can you please send me the link to the correct reference.
This goes back to my question from the email below as to what is the difference between this App and others in which a form of currency is handled (as far as I know, in the Venmo App the amount of money you have is not "real" dollars, while PayPal acts more like a regular bank.)

Please note that to the best of my knowledge there is no relation between bitcoins and any feature of iPhone or any other Apple product.
The only possible connection is that some people will buy Apple servers for their superior support for OpenCL in order to use it to generate bitcoins (but this is completely outside the scope of this App.)

Thank you very much, and please send me my 0.5 BitCoin back.
You can also use the following address:

1JsHXZRoqoPkwpZajy1VmnSmmvxqy1eux2

[grondilu]

I was called by a person from Apple: App was rejected by Apple because "...it involves intermediate currency..."
I've asked why Apps such as PayPal and Venmo are accepted and he replied that he "does not have time to elaborate"
I then asked if they allow just a console to a remote node (not located on iPhone) and he said that this will also be an App that involves intermediate currency and there for will not be allowed...

Just throw you iCrap away.

[bcardarella]

Unfortunately this seems like it is just part of the growing process for Bitcoin. Just because this app is denied today does not mean it will be denied tomorrow. As Bitcoin continues to gain mainstream acceptance it is just a matter of time until Apple can no longer ignore it.

If Paypal was at the same point as Bitcoin I find it hard to believe Apple would respond any differently. Paypal has clout/marketshare so they're going to get acceptance. It sucks but that's how the game is played.

[scotu]

Its not clear it will be allowed on Android. Last week google removed all tethering Apps from Android markets.

I don't know much about bitcoin but I wanted to rectify on your sentence: market policies does not mean much on android since: A. you can have multiple, separate markets (e.g. Amazon App Store for Android) and B. on most devices you can sideload app legally and without hacks/jailbreaks (I think AT&T in the US is the only one in the world that locks this); just download from the web and install.

Good luck with bitcoin :)

[udibr]

I've sent this email to steve@apple.com (lets see if I get a reply):

I think Apple is missing:
I was rejected because the App involves "intermediate currency" however, bitcoin,  is the first true virtual peer-to-peer currency, which unlike all other currencies is not backed by a country or by a central server, but by the bitcoin community (http://bitcoin.org)
This site http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/ has some interesting statistics: In last 24h there were 3.6K exchanges involving 400K bitcoins, the current exchange rate is $3.67=1 bitcoin and according to this the market cap is $22.8M

I am involved with technology before the days of Apple II and I can tell you that this is the real-deal, and just ignoring bitcoin is a mistake.
As far as I know, you cant buy with bitcoins anything in Apple's so it cant be used to by pass your in-app purchase mechanism.
I would even suggest you will add bitcoin to one of the currencies in which people can buy on your stores.

Please reconsider, Udi

[udibr]

Thank you for all the people who signed up for testing. It is encouraging!

I try to send you a version as quickly as I can but few people forgot to signed up their device(s) (go to testflight from your iOS device not from your PC/Mac.)

If you haven’t (and have an iOS device) you can sign up at: http://bit.ly/g4FNZX

Perhaps emailing Apple will also help. I am not sure what would be the best email address for that. If anyone has an idea, please post it here.

If anyone wants to improve my code then start from here:
https://github.com/udibr/bitcoinApp
and please let me know (or make a pull request)

Donation will also help:
1JsHXZRoqoPkwpZajy1VmnSmmvxqy1eux2
Programing, testing and distribution the test version takes its time and in addition, some of the tests I run consume the usual 0.01 fee, not to mention the 0.5 bitcoin that Apple took and never returned.

[udibr]

sorry, I run out of iOS devices I can add to my beta test.
The real solution is to make Apple allow this App on their store.

[benjaminwand]

I'd like to learn something and I'd like to support Bitcoin.
How can I compile the source from https://github.com/udibr/bitcoin ?
With Xcode? Xcode 4 seems not to support git, how can I bring the software project into Xcode?

[jtimon]

The appstore is not compatible with free software as far as I know. So, yes, throw your iCrap away.

http://www.fsf.org/news/2010-05-app-store-compliance

[udibr]

Xcode fully supports git in a very nice way.
As for building the bitcoin App:
I broke the project into two repositories:
1) git@github.com:udibr/bitcoin.git
 is a fork out of the original bitcoin repository and in it I used #if TARGET_OS_IPHONE || TARGET_IPHONE_SIMULATOR to mark my small changes.
2) git@github.com:udibr/bitcoinApp.git
is the App itself and this is where the Xcode project file for both repositories is held: BitCoin.xcodeproj

In addition you need to build several other packages for iPhone. The above is just an overview, the exact steps are described at
https://github.com/udibr/bitcoin/blob/master/build-iOS.txt

Good luck, Udi

[njloof]

Thanks for all your work thus far. The only bugs I've had have been on my old iPhone 3G. It has less RAM, so I suspect that's one reason why the app crashes; when it's been full with music it also can cause the app to crash. In both cases it seems unrecoverable without deleting the app (the app will always crash on launch after one of these crashes). It would be great for the app to recover in that case and regenerate the database.

Donation will also help:
1JsHXZRoqoPkwpZajy1VmnSmmvxqy1eux2

>plonk<

[udibr]

Interesting. I know that the App always crash on 4.2.1. Maybe this is related.
What iOS version do you have? Do you know if bitcoin has a recovery command-line-flag I can use?

[Mike Hearn]

There's already a Bitcoin wallet app in the Android market (testnet only).