Google has changed its Play Store Policy in response to our reporting. Here's why this is a big deal for developers.
Since our story yesterday, several people reached out to me about Google Play Store delisting non-custodial wallets well before the policy in question came into effect in July, asking for local licenses under what was previously known as their Blockchain-based Content Policy.
One of these wallets was Electrum Wallet, who thankfully documented their ordeal with the Google Play Store publicly.
It seems that as soon as a local jurisdiction codified licensing requirements for software wallets, Google wanted to see that the developers obtained said license, making no distinction between custodial and non-custodial wallets.
If no license was provided, it appears that Google auto-banned flagged wallets for policy violations, leaving it up to the developers to prove that they did not need a license under local laws.
In the case of Electrum Wallet, getting their wallet back into the Play Store took over 100 days. That's 100 days in which no new installs were possible, while existing users weren't able to pull updates. A big deal, seeing how some updates push critical security fixes.
By fixing their newest policy to now specifically exempt non-custodial wallets, non-custodial wallet developers will no longer have to prove that they don't need a license if they are flagged, but can simply point to the fact that they are a non-custodial application, referencing Google's own policy.
Never thought I'd say this, but thank you Google for fixing this, and thanks to everyone who helped raise hell to make it happen. Let this be your reminder that protesting injustices actually works, and that we should be doing a lot more of it.
As a side note, I am open for apologies and do not hold grudges for dumb takes (@`Jameson Lopp`)
