Bitcoin Mining Apps Still Live on Google Play Despite Ban

Google is reportedly hosting cryptocurrency mining applications in Play Store, despite a ban imposed last month.

Google’s revised terms of service states that, “We don’t allow apps that mine cryptocurrency on devices.” However, the search engine giant mentioned last month that apps that remotely manage cryptocurrency mining are permitted. Despite the ban, few digital currency mining apps have either updated to abide with the new terms nor have removed their apps from the store.

Mining apps such as Bitcoin Mining, BTC Miner Pool, and Pickaxe Miner are found to be still live on Google Play, while Cloud Bitcoin Miner app is said to have revised its services in accordance with the new Google terms. “Mining is not performed on the user’s phone,” the app’s description clarifies.

Earlier this month, UK-based blockchain startup JSEcoin, which facilitates cryptocurrency mining, announced the launch of Android mobile mining app on Google Play. “We have additionally reached out to the Google Support team to confirm if we are allowed to allow our users to mine our tokens via our official app – as we are aware of their restriction policy,” JSEcoin co-founder and CTO John Sim, told HardFork during its launch. Later, the JSEcoin app disappeared from the Play Store.

Another mining app, MinerGate, announced last week in a tweet that a new version has been designed for “monitoring and managing” the user’s mining process in a move to abide by the new Google terms. With the update, MinerGate told Hard Fork:

“Mining on your phone directly was among the core features of the MinerGate app before the last changes in Google Play Development policies. With the last update, we are removing this functionality to meet the updated requirements.”

Earlier this year, Google outlawed cryptocurrency mining extensions from the Chrome Web Store. The search engine outlined the reason for the ban in its official release stating that, “90% of all extensions with mining scripts that developers have attempted to upload to Chrome Web Store have failed to comply with their new mining policies.”

Google had already banned malicious cryptojacking apps after an Android app was found cryptojacking devices in January, while also mining monero. Following this, Google also imposed a ban on ICO advertisements from June.

Featured Image from Shutterstock

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