Despite Apple’s recent stance against cryptocurrency related apps in its App Store, privacy coin PIVX just managed to launch their wallet app for iOS devices. This change could represent a fundamental shift in the way crypto apps are treated on Apple platforms. But how did the team manage to get around the restrictions? And more importantly, what does this mean for PIVX and other similar privacy based cryptocurrencies?
Money in Your Pocket, Not on Your Computer
Privacy crypto coins have found themselves in a unique position in the financial world. While some have gained massive attention (XMR comes to mind), others are still thing on the sidelines waiting for their moment to shine.
PIVX has seen steady user growth over the past few years since its inception, but prices have also seen a lot of volatility. The coin launched with a market price of just a few cents, then rocketed up to nearly $15 each, before cooling down and reaching its current daily average of about just under one dollar.
With that out of the way, let’s move on to the main point. Most people do a lot of their shopping online today, and so a desktop-based wallet could be just fine. However, making face-to-face purchases at stores or amongst acquaintances is still a common reality. Further, a low cost smartphone could be the only way for some of the less fortunate access cryptocurrency. In other words, a mobile wallet app is essential for adoption within this segment of the populace.
That’s why a number of projects push to get their own wallet launched onto as many platforms as possible.
So far, the Google Play store for Android devices has been much more permissive when it comes to allowing cryptocurrency-related apps. Apple and its App Store are far more strict, especially when it pertains to cryptocurrency-related apps.
According to official blog posts, the PIVX team has been trying to get their wallet onto the Apple App Store for at least an entire year. In the end, the team was finally able to reach the milestone of being the first proof-of-stake privacy coin with their own app on the Apple App Store. In their announcement, the group claims that this feat was accomplished thanks to an active community member who was able to release the app through an Italian based LLC company. That’s why the app is currently listed as having been launched by “CAMERA LUCIDA SRL SEMPLIFICATA”.
Not the First Mobile Solution for PIVX
Prior to this announcement, the only way for iOS users to access PIVX on their mobile devices was to use the popular Coinomi multi-currency wallet. While Coinomi offered a fully functional means of sending and receiving units of PIV (more on that later), it did not, unfortunately, support privacy features that the system offers. This is because in order to send a private transaction, one needs to first “mint” what are called zPIV. These zPIV units can then be sent completely anonymously to any address where they will become PIV at the receiving address. Without this critical ability to handle zPIV, Coinomi sadly did not support the essential privacy features that PIVX offers.
Read: What are Privacy Coins?
While the new official PIVX app is available now, unfortunately, it does not immediately support zPIV. The PIVX team has stated that this is their next goal for the app. Now that the app is available in both the Google and Apple app stores, upgrades like this are far more easier to implement as they will not need to wait for further approvals from Apple itself.
Why is this Important?
What’s interesting about this situation is not just that another cryptocurrency project launched a wallet app. Instead, it is a sign that Apple is finally coming to terms with cryptocurrency apps. This will certainly pave the way for more projects to launch their apps onto the Apple App Store, which in turn will likely boost innovation in the mobile crypto space. And while PIVX is far from the first crypto app on the platform, the good news is it will be far from the last.
1 Comment
can you stake PIVX with this mobile wallet?