Apple might support Bitcoin transactions soon

An interesting thing that was revealed by Apple recently is the fact that the company is going to support virtual currencies. Presumably this includes Bitcoin, but maybe others as well. They are going to decide which are the legitimate ones and which are the illegitimate ones, but we don’t know what their criteria will be yet. The official statement regarding this issue mentions that these currencies must be considered legal in order to be supported. “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 is putting itself in the position of being a sort of kingmaker for virtual currencies. This announcement, along with some of the Continuity features and the alterative keyboards seem be to be very uncharacteristic moves by Apple. These are the kind of things you wouldn’t have seen under Steve Jobs most likely. The company seems to be more open minded all of a sudden. The idea of supporting virtual currencies just seems very un-Apple like, for a lack of a better term. It looks like the days when Apple could just surprise us with a completely closed system are gone. Everyone is familiar now with their game plan in the music business and the mobile business. Now the company needs to be open enough to get people on to their platform, and make sure that other companies feel that they can profit in an Apple ecosystem.

Although the company didn’t mention what virtual currencies will be supported, we assume that Bitcoin will be among them given that it’s the most popular. An interesting thing to note is that while Bitcoin might not be considered illegal, it’s not legally recognized by governments either. We’re curious how Apple will go about this given their policy. In any case, we assume some more time needs to pass before we will be able to make purchases from the App Store using Bitcoins or other virtual currencies. The company may have arrived a little late to the party here, but we’re glad that they’re working on allowing more unconventional methods of payment. This decision will surely help Apple in the long run regardless of the outcome.

Moves like these are considered to be bold and innovative by many people so the company’s popularity might grow as a result. We’re really excited to see how the situation develops. Of course we’ll share any new info as soon as we hear it ourselves so stay tuned.