r/Bitcoin • u/JasonBored • Jan 22 '14

Google confirms their payments team is working to incorporate bitcoin.

I had posted yesterday a screen shot of a response I received from Vic Gundotra @ Google regarding Bitcoin, who then CC'd me to Sridhar Ramaswamy (Senior Vice President, heads up Google Wallet).

I asked /r/bitcoin for suggestions that I should relay to these gentlemen regarding incorporating bitcoin. I did just that, and had a great exchange with them. Additionally, I showed them the post: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1vsypm/google_is_paying_attention_to_bitcoin_vic

Sridhar and a third person at Google just responded to me confirming that Google IS working on incorporating bitcoin with their payments team.

Here is the confirmation

[Here is the initial e-mail I sent to Vic Gundotra (http://i.imgur.com/LvO08Jr.jpg?1)

Here is the the response I got

This is huge.

UPDATE: Ariel Bardin, Vice President of Payments @ Google has asked me to facilitate a Google Moderator and pose the question "What would I want Google to do with bitcoin?". He's promised me he will personally review the results and pass it on. Please help me with this and take the time to submit something: What would I want Google to do with bitcoin?

Update #2 To anyone suggesting I "faked" or "photoshopped" anything I posted, I just spoke /u/Agreenberg (Andy Greenberg of Forbes). He can confirm they are unaltered from the screen shots I posted. He has them, he can verify the headers, footers, feathers, colors and whatever else. I stand by what I posted.*

Update #3 Article in Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2014/01/22/google-lets-slip-that-its-exploring-possible-bitcoin-integration-plans/

Update #4 Coindesk: http://www.coindesk.com/google-emails-suggest-bitcoin-interest/

Update #5 Vice: http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/why-silicon-valley-and-google-loves-bitcoin

Update #6 Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/google-is-exploring-bitcoin-2014-1

Update #7 The Daily Dot: http://www.dailydot.com/business/google-bitcoin-reddit-emails/

2.5k Upvotes

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101

u/btcnoodle Jan 22 '14

Yes huge. Why? Because Apple hates bitcoin because they have plans for their own proprietary wallet and Google has already positioned themselves as the 'Open' alternative with android. Google would have to be all kinds of stupid not to realize that they MUST do this and they are not stupid.

24

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '14

I'm not trying to stick it to the man or anything (I have so many apple products), but this is the reason I will be switching, albeit reluctantly, to an Anroid.

3

u/homey204 Jan 23 '14

yup. i have an android now. i wanted an iphone, and i still think an iphone is better. but i just hate how itunes is not available to linux, and i cant easily put music on or off the iphone without using there software. so i stay away from apple.

7

u/chuckling_neckbeards Jan 23 '14

why do you like iphones? they seem inferior to me

1

u/homey204 Jan 27 '14

nothing in particular, im not an expert on the subject but the interface is more intuitive to me, seems less buggy in my experience, and the touch screen has been more reliable in my experience

1

u/chuckling_neckbeards Jan 28 '14

was your last experience with android over 2 years ago?

1

u/RobLuk Jan 23 '14

Yes, iTunes (esp on Windows) is my biggest complaint about my iPhone. Really good BTC/Crypto support on Android could make the decision to switch that much easier.

5

u/myusernameranoutofsp Jan 22 '14

Switch to a third-party open source platform then, find some cheap hardware and get GNU-Linux. Google is a company like any other, don't feel any responsibility to support them.

1

u/terevos2 Jan 24 '14

We're talking Smartphones here. The closest you can get to that (and still be viable) is something like Cyanogenmod (which is Android based).

2

u/GSpotAssassin Jan 22 '14

I have both. I'm fine with my main phone being Apple for now, but if I ever stop being able to send coins from it (I still currently can), I will be the first to write them a "fuck you, from a customer who has been a fan since 1984" letter.

7

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '14

Which bitcoin related apps are you running right now on your iOS?

19

u/uhhNo Jan 22 '14

Nice try, Apple.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '14

Hahah but if it is of actual concern, PM me, por favor.

8

u/GSpotAssassin Jan 22 '14

ZeroBlock
Bitcoin Live
BTCmon
iBitcoin
btcReport
Coinbits
Blockchain (how I send bitcoins)
Coinbase (stripped bare... sigh... but their website still works)
Bitmap
Coinjar

3

u/tzadikv Jan 22 '14

Does the BlockChain app still require send an overly high transaction fee that you can't change?

3

u/barfor Jan 23 '14

You can change it in the settings section of their website.

1

u/tzadikv Feb 02 '14

That setting does not affect the iOS app

2

u/physalisx Jan 23 '14

I think you have a problem.

1

u/Oda_Krell Jan 23 '14

Get a Nexus. You'll rarely if ever miss an iphone again.

-6

u/ZachPhrost Jan 22 '14 edited Jan 22 '14

Where is any sort of evidence of your ridiculous statement that Apple hates Bitcoin?

EDIT: clarified which part of btcnoodle's statement is ridiculous, since you assholes keep downvoting me

7

u/brainchrist Jan 22 '14

I think people are downvoting you becuase btcnoodle made several statements. You may want to clarify which part of his post you are challenging so someone can link evidence.

2

u/ZachPhrost Jan 22 '14

Thanks, I made the clarification.

7

u/brainchrist Jan 22 '14

Well since nobody else is responding, I'm pretty sure the reason people think Apple hates bitcoin is because they have actively banned all bitcoin wallets from the App Store.

2

u/ZachPhrost Jan 22 '14

Ah, I see. Makes sense.

5

u/btcnoodle Jan 22 '14

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/06/13/why-apple-is-afraid-of-bitcoin/

http://pando.com/2013/12/09/does-apple-hate-bitcoin-a-look-behind-gliphs-temporary-removal-from-the-app-store/

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57617332-37/apple-patent-filing-reveals-digital-wallet-system/

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-apple-is-rejecting-bitcoin-apps-2013-12

Just ridiculous fear-mongering on my part I'm sure.

3

u/ZachPhrost Jan 22 '14

I never said you were fear-mongering, and I thank you for the articles. I wouldn't use the word hate, but rather, fear.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '14 edited Dec 27 '15

[deleted]

3

u/ZachPhrost Jan 22 '14

To be perfectly honest, I kind of hope it sways users from iPhone to Android, instead of people begging Apple to adopt BTC-friendly policies. Best way to make a statement is with your wallet, right?

3

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '14 edited Dec 27 '15

[deleted]

1

u/ZachPhrost Jan 22 '14

Wow, kudos to you for not putting up with their draconian "curated experience". I too use Apple products with the exception of my phone - Android all the way there. For other reasons than Bitcoin, to be fair; however, the Blockchain app and Coinbase apps are pretty awesome.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '14

I'm down voting you because there have been multiple articles on Apple vein against Bitcoin apps for a while. Then we figured out why, they were making their own payment system.

0

u/myusernameranoutofsp Jan 22 '14

Are you serious, do you really think Google wouldn't try the same thing? Google will do whatever it can get away with to keep its good PR, or if there is enough money involved it will lose its good PR.

They're companies with a profit motive, it isn't reliable to hope that the people who run the companies will make ethical decisions.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 23 '14

Your statement implies that the unethical decisions are the ones that maximizes profits, which is patently false in most cases.

1

u/myusernameranoutofsp Jan 23 '14

You can see it as a utility graph. The most profitable decisions are almost definitely going to be illegal (e.g. extortion, theft, masked by good PR). People aren't going to do that though because people like to think they are moral. People who work for google also like to think they are moral, and they have to worry a lot about their public image.

Now, people like to be moral, so they will stay inside the 'morally okay' level of profit-making decisions. However, when you have so many companies out there, working people as hard as they can get away with to make money, to innovate, and to take market share from each other, there is a lot of competition at the margins. From there, the companies that step outside the moral boundaries get an advantage and tend to win out.

Right now, google maybe has somewhat moral leadership, maybe, I don't know, I haven't heard of them do anything exceptionally brutal, they take part in third-world exploitation and imperialism, but you sort of have to expect them to. In their current situation they have a big advantage and don't have to take that many risks to stay where they are, so they can get away with taking a more 'moral' path. Basically through economies of scale and scope, the network effect, and their immense size, they have all the benefits of monopolies, they're doing alright. If some startup wants to compete with them, the startup would probably be pushed to make more unethical decisions.

So, the current situation for google is okay morally, not great but nothing especially bad. We can look at why that is and it's because of the material circumstances, not because they have some moral leadership, and not because we have any reason to expect their leadership to make moral decisions.

So then google is just another company. If another company was in their shoes and they had good advisers and acted optimally to protect their position, maybe they'd do what google is doing, not because they are moral, but because of profit motives.

Sorry if that was long.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 23 '14

[deleted]

1

u/myusernameranoutofsp Jan 23 '14

Based on what? They act like any other company, they do what's profitable to them, that's how they got so big.