Google Play Bans Crypto-mining Apps

Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has taken a page out of Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) book and has officially banned crypto-mining apps on its Google Play Store.

The tech mammoth in its updated developer policy center said that apps that mine cryptocurrencies will no longer be available on its app store.

Apps that facilitate mining in the cloud, however, will still be allowed in the Google Play store. The cloud software products support by Google Play in-app billing includes data storage services, business productivity software and financial management software.

“We don’t allow apps that mine cryptocurrencies on devices,” the policy update says. “We permit apps that remotely manage the mining of cryptocurrency.”

The developer guidelines didn’t go into any further details about the decision to ban crypto-related mining apps.

In April, however, Google announced it was banning from its Chrome Web Store browser extensions that mine digital currencies, noting that it allowed crypt-mining extensions until then as long as it was the extension’s only purpose and that the user was “adequately informed” about the mining behavior.

“Unfortunately, approximately 90% of all extensions with mining scripts that developers have attempted to upload to Chrome Web Store have failed to comply with these policies, and have been either rejected or removed from the store,” the blog post from April said.

Google’s ban on cryptocurrency mining apps in the Google Play store comes on the heels of Apple’s ban back in mid-June.

Apple said in its guidelines at the time that apps can’t mine for cryptocurrencies unless it’s done offline, similar to Google’s updated policies, on cloud-based mining.

Over a seven day period–from July 23 to July 30–bitcoin has had its best record since May, with a slight dip on July 28 following Google Play’s updated policies. The digital currency reached a two-month high on July 24, clocking in at US$8,351.86, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com, and has largely remained over the US$8,000 threshold since then.

As of 5:48 p.m. EST on Monday (July 30), bitcoin was priced at US$8,135.23, a slight 0.79 percent dip over a 24-hour period.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Jocelyn Aspa, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.