Apple Updates App Store Guidelines, Approving Virtual Currencies

App store

This year’s WWDC unveiled the path Apple will follow in the second half of 2014. And alongside great improvements on the software side – see iOS 8 features and Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite features – there are also some changes in the App Store review guidelines. And what’s particularly interesting is that Apple will allow developers to include virtual currency transactions in their apps, Reuters reports.

“Apps may facilitate transmission of approved virtual currencies provided that they do so in compliance with all state and federal laws for the territories in which the app functions,” Apple said in an update to its App Store review guidelines.

You may recall that Apple had removed apps that promoted virtual currencies from the App Store; namely, those which had something to do with Bitcoin. Now, in an interesting turn of events, Apple will accept Bitcoin transactions.

Virtual currencies are not backed by governments or central banks, and are bought and sold on peer-to-peer networks without any central control. With the new guidelines in place, developers can enable Bitcoin-sending capabilities without facing the threat of removal from the App Store.

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