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Mycelium, a bitcoin wallet previously available on the Google Play store, has been blocked. Developers are trying to work out why this happened. Company representatives are asking potential customers in a Reddit thread to download the app directly from the Mycelium website.

The first reports about the suspension of Mycelium appeared on Reddit on February 11th. Users who tried to open the application’s page got an “Error 403” message.

Mycelium is one of the most popular bitcoin wallets for the Android OS. The company boasts 2 million users (a number comparable to Coinbase and Blockchain). The Vienna-based company has acquired a reputation for its product’s usability and its multitude of security options.

Many users turned to the Vienna-based company to find out the reasons for this suspension. Some hours later, Mycelium sent out a message informing users and customers about the suspension:

“We are trying to get to the bottom of this. In the mean time, you can always download our wallet from our website directly athttps://mycelium.com/bitcoinwallet”
According to Mycelium, the application’s page was blocked because of an in-built function called “Local Trader”. This function allowed the mobile application’s users to find other Mycelium users near them and buy bitcoins offline.  After the operation was confirmed by the seller, Mycelium transferred the bitcoins to the buyer. Company representative stated that they charged a fee of around 0.2%.  

This commission went directly to Mycelium without passing through the Google Payment Processor. This, in turn, breaks the rules of Google Play, which state that “The Payment Processor must process all fees a Developer receives for any version of a Product distributed via the Store”.

Google has not so far issued any statements on the issue. In a discussion on Reddit, a representative of Mycelium spoke about the possibility of removing “Local Trader” function. There is no information whether any decision has been made. As of 22:30 on February 11th, the Mycelium page on Google Play remains suspended.

Coinfox will closely follow the development of this situation, which in some way affects 2 million bitcoin users around the world.