Google mysteriously removes cryptocurrency wallets from Play Store

Google removed at least three major cryptocurrency wallets from its Play Store overnight. While the reason for their removal is not immediately clear, Bitcoinom CEO Roger Ver is blaming Google’s new cryptocurrency mining policy .

Over the last 12 hours, cryptocurrency wallet apps Bitcoin Wallet (managed by Bitcoinom), CoPay, and BitPay have been removed. The curious part is that none of these are cryptocurrency mining apps (nor do they advertise such features).

Google has remained tight-lipped about what triggered the removal. Though that shouldn’t be a surprise, given its policy not to comment on individual cases like these.

Ver has since hinted Google’s updated Play Store policy had mistakenly flagged wallets as on-device cryptocurrency miners, which is strictly against the new rules.

“Google told us that it was because they no longer allow crypto currency [sic] mining apps,” wrote Ver. “I have no idea how they came under the impression that our wallet is a mining app.”

Currently, Bitcoinom is the only one to make it back online.

Hard Fork reached out to BitPay and Bitcoin Wallet developer Bitcoinom for comment. So far, BitPay has told Hard Fork that it should be back online soon, though stopped short of giving any details of what needs fixing before Google reinstate it.

The three wallets share a kinship through code. CoPay is the eldest, of which Bitcoin Wallet is a direct fork. BitPay develop and release both CoPay and BitPay apps, which are very similar, but the latter has additional functionality.

Android users have installed both BitPay and CoPay over 100,000 times, each. Bitcoin Wallet boasts more than one million users.

All three support both Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, but the beef between Roger Ver and proponents of Bitcoin should not be understated. In May, Ver was forced to heavily edit his blockchain explorer to remove all suggestion of Bitcoin Cash being the real Bitcoin.

Bitcoinom has also received flak for surreptitiously pushing Bitcoin Cash (BCH) as Bitcoin (BTC) on its Bitcoin Wallet app.

The developers share code for the wallets through GitHub, so the chance of malicious actors sneaking cryptocurrency mining code in an update is pretty slim. Although BitPay doesn’t receive a cut from mining fees, BitPay raised eyebrows by imposing additional “network” fees to cover costs.

Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by these strange events; Google’s new cryptocurrency rules have had a rocky start, despite good intentions. In the lead-up to the policy coming into effect, Hard Fork found the Play Store was hosting loads of apps that could mine cryptocurrency on-device and were legitimate targets for removal.

But, Google then removed a cloud-based cryptocurrency mining app with over one million users, even after it stopped supporting smartphone mining.

Let’s hope they sharpen up.

NatWest to become world’s first bank to use blockchain for loan management

Even though blockchain was originally developed to replace conventional banks, it seems they might also have uses for the decentralized technology too.

NatWest just announced in a press release that by next month, it’ll be the world’s first bank to integrate with and use blockchain to manage syndicated loans.

$3.5 trillion in syndicated loans brokered in 2017

Syndicated loans are more simple than they might sound. In cases where the risk of lending is too large for one entity to shoulder on their own, lenders will group together to help spread the risk.

But due to the multiple – in some cases, hundreds of – stakeholders in syndicated loans, they are often much more difficult to manage. Enter, blockchain.

On what blockchain?

NatWest states it will be using Fusion LenderComm. The platform was built by Finastra in an attempt to improve communication channels between the many stakeholders of syndicated loans. Current systems are labor intensive and haven’t changed much in the last 20 years.

As it turns out, Fusion LenderComm is underpinned by Corda’s R3 distributed ledger technology (DLT). Sound familiar?

R3 is an American startup working to create DLT solutions, mostly for banks and tech firms. Enterprises can create their own private DLTs based on its open-source blockchain platform. It has been around since 2016, and has continuously touted partnerships with huge industry figures, from Microsoft to J.P. Morgan.

Earlier this year, Fortune reported on speculations that it might be running out of money, despite apparently securing $107 million in funding. Such claims were later denied by managing director Charlie Cooper.

Yes, Corda is open-source, but DLTs built on the platform are quite closed off. Blockchains built on Corda, like NatWest’s use of LenderComm, will be completely closed and seemingly centralized – a disappointingly common theme for enterprise DLT solutions.

Yet again it’s a promise of blockchain laced with irony. It’s blockchain, but it’s closed off, hidden from public view, and centralized, in a bank.

Indian teen threatens to blow up Miami airport to avenge stolen Bitcoin

A high school student has been charged by authorities in India for threatening to blow up the Miami airport.

The eighteen year old boy was unhappy with the US investigation agency FBI for not helping him recover a sum of Bitcoin he lost to a US-based fraudster.

The boy, who has not been named, called the FBI at least 50 times over the last month. Failing to get any satisfactory response, he then called Miami airport authorities threatening to attack the airport by “barging into it with an AK-47 assault rifle, grenades, and a suicide belt,” local daily Hindustan Times reports.

The threats were made from multiple email IDs and phone numbers acquired using fake identities.

The FBI reached out to India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) to help track down the caller, which traced the calls to a small town in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

The authorities have charged the boy with multiple crimes under the Indian Penal Code and the IT Act for impersonation and issuing terror threats over internet/calls.

The boy was earlier detained and interrogated by the authorities but hasn’t been formally arrested. The case is pending further investigation as the perpetrator is too young to be tried as an adult. After interrogating his school authorities and family members, the police concluded the boy to be “studious” and judged his threats to be naive and unintentional.

The boy told Police during questioning that he had made huge profits with Bitcoin over the past five months after he invested $1,000 borrowed from his father. That was until he met a man claiming to be from the US in an online chat forum who promised to get him even big returns on his cryptocurrency but then disappeared with the money.

It is worth noting that cryptocurrency is not legal tender in India , and virtual currency investments are not protected under Indian laws.

The courts are likely to let the boy get off the hook easy considering his tender age, but he would have learnt a hard lesson by the end of it: don’t toy with the FBI no matter which part of the world you are from.

Hunter Jones

Hunter Jones

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