In the last nine months, Google has turned its attention to crypto related web-based products, amending policy after policy. Recently, the tech giant did the unexpected. They removed three crypto wallets from the Google play store including BitPay, Bitcoin.com‘s Bitcoin Wallet, and CoPay.
The developers of these apps have stated that Google did not give any notice before taking action. On their part, Google is yet to speak on their rationale for removing the wallets and since they have a policy of not commenting on individual cases, it is likely they won’t be doing so.
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Speaking on the new development, Roger Ver, Bitcoin.com CEO and Bitcoin Cash enthusiast has revealed that the wallet removal may be as a result of Google’s new Play Store policy to ban cryptocurrency mining apps like Bitcoin and Monero.
Google And Cryptocurrencies
According to Ver, under Google’s new policy, apps that mine for cryptocurrencies are no longer allowed. However, the decision to remove their wallet from Play Store may have been a mistake since the wallet is not a mining app. The affected wallets all share a portion of the same source code and that is probably why they were swept off together.
Report has it that the Bitcoin Wallet is back on the Google Play Store. Although, CoPay and BitPay are yet to be restored, they are expected to be back on online soon.
Google’s continued hard stance against cryptocurrency has reflected in the actions they have taken since the year’s beginning. They prohibited the advertisement of all crypto-related products and trading advice on their AdWords advertising platform. While advertisers running forex and other ad types were allowed to carry on their business if they complied with legal requirements and get certified, Cryptocurrencies were not given any option for advertisement.
Google also went ahead to ban Google Chrome extensions that were involved in cryptocurrency mining before doing the same on the Google Play Store. This policy was what eventually led to the removal of the cryptocurrency wallets.