Where is Bitcoin Blast for Apple App Store? What happened to it?

Bitcoin Blast’s Keyword performance on Apple App Store for first week

We launched Bitcoin Blast for iOS devices on Friday, January 24, 2020, and by all accounts it was a hit. The chart above shows where Bitcoin Blast sat day-by-day in the keyword ranking. We were trending up and to the right on every stat we had available to us. Bitcoin Blast on the Apple App Store was crushing it.

Removal from the store

Just six days after launch, Apple called. A member of the Apple App Store Review Team explained that Bitcoin Blast had been given a second evaluation by their review board, and they had decided to remove it from the store.

In contrast to our Google Play experience, Apple provided us with advanced notice and gave us a human touch-point that sat on the phone for as long as I wanted to answer detailed questions about why our app needed to be removed. The representative pointed to specific policies and provided their interpretation of why they believed we were in violation.

To sum up our experience with the Apple App store removing our app, it was respectful and it was transparent.

We were not removed for being involved with cryptocurrency, so please keep the pitchforks in the barn today.

We were not suspended, and we are free to submit new builds

Once again, in contrast to Google, Apple did not suspend our app, but merely removed our application with no accusations or threats. They let us know that we are free to return to the store if we can make our application compliant with their policies. Our Apple App Store Developer account is 100% in good standing with no strikes against it.

Is Bitcoin Blast returning to the Apple App Store?

When we launched on the Apple App Store, we had read their terms in detail and crafted a build that we thought would be compliant based on our interpretation of their policies. It was already significantly different than the Android version of Bitcoin Blast. We now know that Apple interprets its policies differently than we did. We now know where the line is.

We will need to change the overall flow and structure of Bitcoin Blast in fundamental ways in order to make the app compliant, and we aren’t prepared to set a date on when we will get that done. It may take some time, and it’s also possible that Bitcoin Blast will never return to an Apple platform. We just don’t know at this point, but there will certainly be no quick fix.

Where do we go from here?

We are going to continue to build our platform in a way that we think most promotes the concept of making money fun. That may include iPhones and Apple at some point, but we have to take it a step at a time and aren’t ready to announce plans yet. We’re just starting to process everything that has happened over the last two weeks. In the meantime, we have big announcements coming in the next month that require our focus for now.

Are we upset with Apple?

While we don’t think it makes much sense for Apple to deny users access to an application that they want that is not harming them, we do feel they have extended an olive branch to us by opening the communication lines, and we’re thrilled to continue that dialog with them going forward. This is completely different than our experience with Google.

Thanks for sticking with us

As always, we love our users and we thank you for your support as we navigate the mine fields of this walled garden world we live in. We’re on a great path and have a great community of users.

Please stick around! To our iOS users, please check back with us in the future. We’ll make sure to leave a light on just for you.

The best is yet to come.

Update 12/1/2020 — Apple approved our build — Bitcoin Blast is back on the store

Update 7/9/2021 — Apple has once again removed our app. We are hoping to resolve it soon and are actively working on getting it restored.

Update 9/14/2021 — Apple has approved our app and it is live again. 😅