Apple recently started to give more freedom to iOS app developers in integrating digital currencies and in-game tokens including bitcoin.
Yesterday, the California-based tech giant has approved another bitcoin-based mobile game application called Wheel of Bitcoins, which pays bitcoin directly and immediately to users’ email, from the app.
Wheel of Bitcoins is a casual roulette game, with which users spin to win different combinations of bitcoins. Once users earn bitcoins in the game, the app sends it through Xapo directly to users’ emails, allowing users to instantly withdraw or cash out bitcoins.
Since the approval of various bitcoin tipping-enabled iOS games and applications such as Game of Birds in June, bitcoin has been increasing its presence in the Apple Store, with 7 bitcoin-enabled games and applications being registered in the store over the past few months.
Popular bitcoin-based mobile game developer Bitcoin Alien has had 3 of their applications in the Apple store for over 3 months, after the approval of the Apple team. According to the company, Apple is well aware of the game’s bitcoin payout system and is happy with it.
“The team was actually accepting of them, had a few questions but they absolutely know that we pay out bitcoin and had no problem with it. We actually give out around 5-7btc a week between these 3x apps now, and if you search for "bitcoin" the app "Bitcoin Free" is 2nd/3rd in the Apple store,” stated the Bitcoin Aliens team.
However, some bitcoin-enabled applications such as Wheel of Bitcoins have received an increasing number of criticisms from the community for choosing Xapo over other wallet platforms with simplified verification and identification systems.
Xapo, one of the world’s leading bitcoin startups and wallet service provider requires users to undergo an extensive verification process upon registration due to its Know Your Customer and Money Laundering policies and regulations.
However, as emphasized by the developers of Game of Birds in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, the idea behind bitcoin-based games is to help the currency to become more mainstream by allowing users that are unfamiliar with cryptocurrencies to use it.
Anonymous users of Wheel of Bitcoins told Cointelegraph that Xapo’s lengthy identification procedure makes it difficult to use the app and requires as much information as fiat-based financial platforms and systems.
