Bitcoin and Mobile Apps: Hidden Value in Plain Sight

Bitcoin and Mobile Apps: Hidden Value in Plain Sight

Digital currency is a topic of continuous debate and the fluctuations of Bitcoin’s value has been all over the place, ranging from a high of over $1,000 and an average low of about $200. As the worlds first digital, decentralized currency, owners of Bitcoin are pseudo-anonymously tied to their wealth with no government taxation or linked social security identification. This has lead to many legal battles with governments trying to identify the stance to be taken on Bitcoin. Some countries of the world favor in trying to regulate Bitcoin, but some try not to consider it legal tender. Other countries, like Australia, are trying to tax Bitcoin users. Regardless of the governments stance on Bitcoin, it is clear that more and more people are getting involved in the crypto-currency world.

Now Introducing Our Revamped Advertising Page (with Bitcoin Support Too)

Now Introducing Our Revamped Advertising Page (with Bitcoin Support Too)

After some debating amongst the team here at PocketFullOfApps, we\'ve revamped our advertising page with new information and a better look as well. Amongst these changes, most notably is the new spreadsheets for our advertising rates and ad space details. Previously it used to be a jumbled mess of information that wasn\'t well organized, however, it\'s now much easier to understand. In doing so, we also introduced an advertising model where you can purchase an advertisement in increments of 1,000 impressions. This gives developers more flexibility if they want to test out our service, or have a smaller amount of money for promotional purposes. Next up, we\'ve recently began accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment as well. We\'re strong believers in the cryptocurrency, so we want to support it as much as possible. Unlike some companies that convert Bitcoin payments back to dollars, we\'ll hold the Bitcoin as is and won\'t convert it. But without any further to do, be sure to take a look at our revamped advertising page and give us any feedback in the comments.

GAW Miners Acquires ZenMiner for $8 Million [Exclusive]

GAW Miners Acquires ZenMiner for $8 Million [Exclusive]

The Geniuses At Work Corporation , best known for their subsidiary company GAW Miners , recently announced that they have acquired the popular cloud mining firm ZenMiner. From what we were told, GAW plans to utilize ZenMiner\'s cloud technology to streamline partner integration and accelerate development of "Project Prime", the company\'s next-generation Bitcoin platform which is set to launch later this year. In addition to this recent acquisition, the Founder of GAW, Josh Garza, also made headlines earlier this year by purchasing BTC.com for $1 million.

"We\'re investing heavily into bringing Bitcoin to the masses" says Josh Garza, CEO of GAW. "We’ve been impressed with how rapidly ZenMiner took over the hosted mining market. After we knew we saw their technology we knew we had to bring them in."

For those wanting to learn more about Bitcoin or getting into the mining area, be sure to check out GAW Miners\' website where they have equipment from $30 for beginners all the way up to $1000 and more for experienced people. Apart from that, we\'d like to congratulate both teams from ZenMiner and GAW Miners on the partnership and acquisition,

EXCLUSIVE: Perianne Boring of the Chamber of Digital Commerce Launches Petition and Initiative Against BitLicense [Interview]

EXCLUSIVE: Perianne Boring of the Chamber of Digital Commerce Launches Petition and Initiative Against BitLicense [Interview]

The Chamber of Digital Commerce, also known as the "Digital Chamber" or "DC" for short, is seeking supporters to sign their petition to Benjamin Lawsky, New York’s Superintendent of Financial Services, asking him to extend the comment period on the proposed BitLicense regulations through the end of 2014. The petition states: "An extension is necessary to allow the industry time to formulate proposals that address the NYDFS goals of providing guardrails that do not threaten this nascent technology." Perianne Boring is the founder and President of the newly formed Chamber of Digital Commerce. Opening its doors just a few weeks ago at The North American Bitcoin Conference, the DC is embarking on a bold mission to promote the acceptance and use of digital assets and digital currencies among government and the general public. Just two days before launching, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) proposed their BitLicense rule and regulations. The Bitcoin community has largely expressed major concerns over the proposed regulations, and Boring has boldly jumped into the debate:

"We did not have plans to get involved with policy initiatives this year, rather the next several months have been dedicated to setting up our office, recruiting membership, and hiring and training staff. However, the New York proposed BitLicense regulations are so important to the future of the industry that the Digital Chamber is getting involved on a grassroots level. "

The DC previously issued a call to action urging the industry to submit comments to the NYDFS. Their user-friendly petition provides an easy way for people to lend their voice in shaping digital currency policy. To see the full interview, please click the following link.

Coin Congress: Interview with Kyle Drake of Coinpunk [Part 2]

Coin Congress: Interview with Kyle Drake of Coinpunk [Part 2]

Following up from our part one interview with Kyle Drake, we are back again with part two which gets even better. This time around we cover topics revolving around New York\'s BitLicense, multi-sig Bitcoin addresses, and a little bit more on BitcoinJS. Your take on multi-sig and what\'s your favorite alt-cryptocurrency?

I like multi-sig and definitely see it\'s appeal for protecting theft and creating multi-group stores of value. They\'re a useful tool. But in practice, I find multi-signature transaction to be a little too complicated for most people to understand. I\'m a bigger fan of things like BIP38 (encrypted paper wallets) for protecting user funds than I am with multisig. There\'s a lot of snake oil security out there, where people claim that multisig is somehow going to magically stop wallet theft. But if all you\'re using multisig for is to sign a transaction with a second key on the server, and that process is automated, how does that prevent an attacker from stealing your funds? The claim that this ends theft is a little over-optimistic to me, and you still run into the problem if trustlessness.

‘Blockchain’ Returns to the App Store After Removal Earlier This Year, Win Free Bitcoin

‘Blockchain’ Returns to the App Store After Removal Earlier This Year, Win Free Bitcoin

After Blockchain \'s highly controversial removal from the App Store earlier this year, the famous Bitcoin wallet app has finally returned after much anticipation. With Blockchain\'s return to the App Store, there have been a number of considerable changes ranging from UI improvements, iOS 7 support as well as BIP38 implementation. Rewind back to early June we saw that Apple\'s updated App Store Review Guidelines hinted that Bitcoin wallet apps for iOS may be allowed yet again, however, it was met with some skepticism at the time. Not only until later that month did we see Coin Pocket , the first Bitcoin wallet app for iOS since the updated guidelines, released onto the App Store which finally gave confirmation that Apple has relaxed their stance on Bitcoin. For those curious this is the official app for Blockchain.info, the most popular online wallet for Bitcoin to this day. Features:

• Send and Receive Bitcoin payments.


• View transactions and wallet balance, open source, PIN protection.


• Updates via Websockets, email/SMS notifications, QR code support.


• View amounts in BTC or milllibits.


• 22 Local Currencies supported, scan paper wallets, address book.

Interested? Blockchain is available for free on the App Store by clicking here. Apart from that, we are giving away a total of $15 USD in Bitcoin to one lucky winner. All you need to do is click here to tweet a message on Twitter, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook. From there we will pick a winner this Friday through Twitter and send all the details from there.

Coin Congress: Interview with Kyle Drake of Coinpunk [Part 1]

Coin Congress: Interview with Kyle Drake of Coinpunk [Part 1]

In addition to our awesome interview with Shawn Wilkinson of Storj, we also had a chance to sit down and talk to Kyle Drake of Coinpunk and Project Skyhook . With this interview being pretty in-depth we\'ve split it into two different parts, so be on the look out later this week for part two which gets even better. In part one we talk to Kyle about how he began Coinpunk , the future of Bitcoin, as well as Dark Wallet . Most recently Kyle began working on BitcoinJS , a Javascript library for Bitcoin wallet applications that has been improved a lot here in the last few months. But without any further to do, be sure to check out part one of the interview by clicking the following link.

Coin Congress: Interview with Shawn Wilkinson of Storj

Coin Congress: Interview with Shawn Wilkinson of Storj

While at Coin Congress earlier this week we had a chance to meet with Shawn Wilkinson, the Founder and Owner of Storj , to chat about his new company that was recently started. Pronounced "storage", Storj aims to be the first ever decentralized cloud storage platform for users to securely and safely backup their files. Even though Storj is still in early beta stages, so far it appears to be really promising. Anyhow, be sure to read the full interview by clicking the following link.

Casual Connect: Day Two Roundup, Winners of the Indie Prize Awards

Casual Connect: Day Two Roundup, Winners of the Indie Prize Awards

After many hours of playing games, deliberation amongst the judges, and a couple hours of anticipation, the final results for the Indie Prize awards are finally in. Starting at 8PM PST yesterday, the Indie Prize Awards Ceremony kicked off and the room was full of energy and excitement. Out of nearly 100 games this year at Casual Connect, only a mere 12 walked away with an award. The awards were broken down into 10 different categories each with two nominees and one winner, the Critic\'s Choice Award, and the Audience Choice Award. So without any further to do, be sure to check out the full list below of the winners, categories and nominees by clicking the following link.

Coin Congress: Silicon Valley’s Premier Jeweler Embraces Bitcoin [Press Release]

Coin Congress: Silicon Valley’s Premier Jeweler Embraces Bitcoin [Press Release]

Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry , Silicon Valley’s premier jewelry house, has partnered with GoCoin to accept Bitcoin, Litecoin as well as Dogecoin payments at its new retail store in the luxurious Rosewood Sand Hill hotel. GoCoin is the first e-commerce payment solution designed to handle both Bitcoin and alternative crypto-currencies at checkout. Located along Sand Hill Road, home to notable venture capital firms like Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, the new 950 square-foot boutique will reflect the tech savvy of its clientele, featuring some of the finest timepieces of high class horology from Richard Mille, Audemars Piguet, HYT, Ulysse Nardin, Arnold & Son, Ressence, Laurent Ferrier, and Devon. The space will welcome guests with video walls, a state-of-the-art sound system, and innovative payment alternatives.

Stephen Silver, chairman and CEO of S.H. Silver Company shared, “We’ve operated in the Bay Area for more than three decades and most of our clients are VCs and in the technology industry, so we’ve naturally become early adopters.” He continued, “GoCoin really appealed to us because they had the foresight to process multiple cryptocurrencies from the outset, which allows us to capture a much broader customer base.”

“It’s exciting to see Silicon Valley’s de facto jewelry house so openly embrace innovation,” said Steve Beauregard, co-founder and CEO of GoCoin. “Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry already deals with portable wealth in the form of precious gems, so allowing high net-worth customers to pay with the most portable form of money was a natural extension.”

Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry has been a trusted source in the Bay Area for nearly 35 years. Since the beginning, the company has married Old World attention to detail with a cosmopolitan eye on design and fashion, producing some of the world’s finest custom-made jewelry.

Coin Congress: Chamber of Digital Commerce Press Conference [Live Blog]

Coin Congress: Chamber of Digital Commerce Press Conference [Live Blog]

With the recent news of the Chamber of Digital Commerce urging the Bitcoin industry to submit comments on New York\'s proposed BitLicense regulations, they are holding a press conference today at Coin Congress here in San Francisco. That being said, we\'ll be live blogging the entire press conference from start to finish along with some photos as well. Also, check PocketFullOfApps on Twitter for all the up to date news.

Coin Congress: Chamber of Digital Commerce Urges Industry To Submit Comments on New York’s Proposed BitLicense Regulations [Press Release]

Coin Congress: Chamber of Digital Commerce Urges Industry To Submit Comments on New York’s Proposed BitLicense Regulations [Press Release]

The newly formed Chamber of Digital Commerce finds the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) proposed BitLicense rules and regulations to be severely debilitating to the digital currency industry. Despite Ben Lawsky\'s claims that these proposed regulations are intended to be guardrails to "protect consumers and root out illegal activity -- without stifling beneficial innovation" these rules could potential crush the Bitcoin industry in New York and stifle jobs, investment, and innovation. The Digital Chamber agrees that we need guardrails in these areas, but these proposed regulations are onerous and in many cases simply misplaced, potentially seriously injuring legitimate applications of this valuable emerging area.

“One egregious aspect is that the NYDFS is only giving 45 days to comment, which is severely inadequate to proposed regulations of this scope” said Perianne Boring, President of the Digital Chamber.

The Digital Chamber is calling on the Bitcoin community to submit comments to the NYDFS. Instructions on how to submit comments can be found on the NYDFS website. Earlier this week the digital currency and digital asset communities came together to form the industry’s first trade association, the Chamber of Digital Commerce. Opening its doors this week in the nation’s capital and officially announced at the National Bitcoin Conference in Chicago, the "Digital Chamber" will promote among lawmakers, regulators, policy makers and the public the industry’s goals and its potential to innovate global finance for the benefit of society.

Coin Congress: ZipZap Expands in Europe [Press Release]

Coin Congress: ZipZap Expands in Europe [Press Release]

ZipZap , one of the most well known cash transaction networks, has announced their European expansion, offering 34 countries across Europe opportunities to use cash to purchase Bitcoin and other digital currencies. The company has developed strategic partnerships across Europe to provide free sign up, free wallet and free deposits. So, starting today European consumers can purchase digital currencies and pay bills for their relatives or friends in other countries. Following a recent partnership with PayZone in the UK, ZipZap is now accepting both cash and bank transfers from networks such as iDeal, MisterCash, SOFORT, SEPA, GiroPay and many more payment options across Europe.

"ZipZap has a commitment to simplify and democratize payments worldwide," said Simon Nahnybida, SVP business development for ZipZap. "We are now enabling more consumers with the power to easily, safely and securely buy digital currencies at affordable prices using multiple payment options".

"The benefit to consumers is that they will get the best prices while conveniently paying with their preferred method of payment,” added Nahnybida."

In other news, ZipZap recently announced their expansion in Latin America, providing true global payment solutions for Bitcoin and Digital Currencies. Consumers can register online, select the amount they wish to buy and the payment option (cash, bank to bank transfer, or wire transfer). Upon receipt of payment, ZipZap will process the order with one of their exchange partners that offer the best price. At the time of this writing, one Bitcoin is currently hovering around the low $600 area.

Coin Congress: IdentityMind Global Receives Safe Harbor Certification and More for Cryptocurrencies [Press Release]

Coin Congress: IdentityMind Global Receives Safe Harbor Certification and More for Cryptocurrencies [Press Release]

IdentityMind Global, a provider of risk management and payment solutions, have recently announced the international expansion of their Anti-Money Laundering (AML) solution for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, including their low-cost IGNITE program for Bitcoin startup companies. With the newly awarded European Union Safe Harbor certification, the AML solution can receive and store user information, expanding […]

PocketFullOfApps Celebrates its 5th Anniversary, Heading to Casual Connect USA and Coin Congress in San Francisco

PocketFullOfApps Celebrates its 5th Anniversary, Heading to Casual Connect USA and Coin Congress in San Francisco

Well folks, today may seem like a normal, average Wednesday afternoon, however, for us it means something pretty exciting and special. As mentioned in the title of this post, today marks the 5th anniversary of PocketFullOfApps and we\'re ecstatic that we\'ve made it this far. Rewinding to five years ago on this very day, PocketFullOfApps was a really small website that only averaged 100 page views a day, if were that lucky. Now on average we see anywhere from 20,000 to 30,000 page views a day and average almost 150,000 unique visits every month. Sure we may not be the biggest iOS blog or website that\'s out there compared to others, but so far we\'re pretty satisfied with the progress made so far. That put aside, we will continue pushing forward to achieve bigger goals and bring you more of the same great content and articles since day one. In summary, here\'s some highlights:

• Roughly 150k unique visits/page views a month.


• Over 600k page views a month.


• Year to date -- ~4.2 million page views and ~1 million unique visits.


• Over 7,500 Twitter followers.

Looking towards the future, everyone here at PocketFullOfApps is excited to see what\'s in store and where we will be in a few years from now. To all of our readers and fans, no matter how long or short you\'ve been visiting, we would like to thank you for your continued support and reading what we have to say. Last but certainly not least, in celebration we have an exciting announcement to make about two conferences we will be attending next week in San Francisco.

Casual Connect USA

For those that may not remember, earlier this year we attended the well-known conference MacWorld in San Francisco. While at the event we did plenty of live blogs, took a lot of photos, did some interviews as well as some post-conference coverage on various topics. This time around we\'re making the trek out to San Francisco yet again for Casual Connect USA, one of the biggest gatherings for indie developers as well as mobile apps and games. In addition, we\'ll be judging in the renowned Indie Prize event as well, so be on the look out for us while we\'re on the showroom floor looking at all the vendors, cool games and everything else the event has to offer. Moving forward, if you\'d like to schedule a time to meet up, chat, grab a coffee, or get some lunch, be sure to let us know. Apart from that, you can expect to see us at some of the great post-conference networking events Casual Connect USA has to offer. While at the event we\'ll be doing some coverage, however, it\'s safe to say we\'ll do more roundups and coverage after the event.

Coin Congress

Doubling up with Casual Connect USA and Indie Prize is another conference by the name of Coin Congress. Focusing on Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies like Litecoin, Coin Congress features a wide range of speakers like Bobby Lee of BTC China, Charlie Lee (creator of Litecoin), Vinny Lingham of Gyft, Jason King of Sean\'s Outpost, and many more While we\'ll be focusing primarily on Casual Connect USA, if you\'re heading to Coin Congress by any chance, be sure to drop us a line as well. Even though our articles mainly target iOS and other Apple related subjects, we have done some coverage on Bitcoin related topics. If either of these events happen to interest you, be sure to check out the registration page for Casual Connect USA here and Coin Congress here.

Bitcoin Wallet Apps Begin Filling the App Store

Bitcoin Wallet Apps Begin Filling the App Store

For those that may have missed it, earlier this month we reported on Apple\'s updated App Store review guidelines which hinted at the possibility of Bitcoin wallet apps being allowed for iOS devices. Back at the time there was some skepticism met with positivity in hopes that Apple finally came to their senses. Well after waiting a couple weeks it\'s finally official, Bitcoin wallet apps are now filling the App Store plus more are sure to come later down the road. The first of these wallet apps was Coin Pocket , a fairly simple and easy to use app based off the HTML 5 website. From there we saw an unofficial Coinbase app that was also met some skeptical reactions due to the fact that it was from a third party and not Coinbase directly. Hopefully sometime here soon we\'ll see the official Blockchain wallet app which was removed from the App Store earlier this year and caused a huge uproar from the Bitcoin community. While this may be a great start, users need to be aware of some security risks they are running by using a mobile wallet. With that being said, right now a good example of that is an unaffiliated Bitpay app that recently leaked onto the App Store and could be a phishing scam. Moving forward, Gyft (a digital gift card provider) has re-added the ability to pay with Bitcoin back into their iOS app. Previously this feature was available up until Apple began doing an anti-Bitcoin sweep of the App Store, so it\'s nice to see the developers have updated their app. Someday here in the near future it would be nice to actually purchase Bitcoin through an in-app purchase, however, it\'s hard to say if that day will ever come due to charge backs and the 30% cut Apple takes. In the coming weeks and months we should see more wallet apps hit the App Store, so like always we\'ll keep you updated.

How to: Add the Bitcoin Price to Your Notification Center

How to: Add the Bitcoin Price to Your Notification Center

With Apple\'s updated App Store review guidelines hinting that Bitcoin wallet apps may be allowed, it appears they are hopefully coming to their senses. So in another odd turn of events, iOS users can now get the Bitcoin price added to their notification center without the need of a 3rd party app thanks to Yahoo Finance. That being said, because the iOS Stocks app relies on Yahoo Finance for stock prices it\'s now easier than ever to get the Bitcoin price right on your iPhone or iPad. All you need to do is follow our pretty simple how to guide below and you\'ll be all set.

1. Open the Stocks app and tap on the settings icon in the lower-right hand corner, from there you\'ll want to tap the plus sign.


2. Then type in "BTCUSD=X" (without the quotes) and tap "Done".


3. To get the price in your notification center, open the Settings app and go to "Notifications" (iOS 6) or "Notification Center" (iOS 7).


4. Add the Stocks widget to wherever you like and you\'ll be good to go.

If you have any questions or need help, let us know in the comments and we\'ll do our best to assist you.

Apple’s New App Store Review Guidelines to Allow Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Wallet Apps?

Apple’s New App Store Review Guidelines to Allow Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Wallet Apps?

Back in February of this year, Apple famously removed the very last Bitcoin wallet app from the App Store which sparked a lot of confusion and uproar amongst various communities. Now following up from today\'s WWDC keynote, Apple has updated their App Store Review Guidelines with new information pertaining to virtual currencies like Bitcoin, Dogecoin and Litecoin. Prior to these new rules Apple banned any app that allowed the transmission of virtual currencies through a wallet (like Blockchain) and only allowed apps such as price tickers or news aggregators. After digging around in the new App Store Review Guidelines, section 11.17 hints that wallet apps can be downloaded from the App Store as long as the virtual currency has been approved and is "in compliance with all state and federal laws for the territories in which the app functions". That being said, there is now some hope that Apple isn\'t completely anti-Bitcoin or anti-virtual currency. Only time will tell until the first crypto-currency wallet app for iOS is submitted and either approved or denied by the App Store review team. Right now our hopes and expectations are high, so maybe Apple has seen the light of day or has had second thoughts since February. Between now and whenever that times does come though, we\'ll keep you update to date with the latest information.