At the Vexl Foundation, we sponsor projects that promote and enable personal and financial freedoms and self-determination. Bitcoin is the ultimate tool of this mission and we spent countless resources trying to give back and preserve its very nature: a peer-to-peer version of an electronic cash that enables payments without going through a financial institution.
The Flagship
Our flagship project — the Vexl app — does exactly this: it connects users with other peers in their social circle so they can exchange cash for bitcoin with them in a privacy preserving way. We are a non-profit, we never interfere with any transaction on the platform and we don’t collect any data regarding the trades.
We spent thousands of hours developing the app dedicated to users’ right to privacy and sovereignty while still keeping it user friendly and intuitive. We spent countless resources talking to lawyers in order to find a way to legally operate such a platform worldwide. And it worked — Vexl was successfully operated for almost 9 months, gaining traction of thousands of users. Until May this year.
Apple’s Escape Room
Apple is well known for its diligent reviews of apps, so we took no chances with the submission of Vexl 2.0 — the app succeeding the first PoC — and submitted the app well in advance before the international launch on BTC Prague earlier this year. Little did we know about the escapade that lay ahead.
After the obligatory primary rejections due to minor UX tweaks, we found ourselves in the middle of a surreal discussion where we would be endlessly explaining to the App Store reviewers that no, there is no chance we could present any kind of license confirming that we are a financial institution — simply because we don’t qualify to get one, as we never process any payments (nor do we know if there are any).
In the end, we did succeed. After weeks of silence, we received a resolution stating that Vexl is not a financial institution, it just facilitates, enables, and encourages an activity that is not legal in all of the locations where the app is available.
So, we took a safe path and allowed it only in locations where we are confident that cash transactions are still legal: the EU.
Do you think it helped?
No, it didn’t.
“Clearly reckless”
Last week we received clarification of our rejection, stating that the app encourages reckless activity. Specifically, the exchange of currencies in person.
We went through the linked guidelines several times, but still cannot wrap our minds around what we are exactly guilty of doing here.
Are Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, Badoo, Grindr, and all other dating apps that encourage people to meet in person also reckless? What about Craigslist and its European counterpart, Vinted, which, on top of meeting in person also include the cash exchange? What about Facebook Marketplace encouraging the same?
These are all some of the most installed and used apps in the App Store. Are these too big for Apple to mess with?
Conclusion
The Vexl foundation came to its existence in response to ongoing erosion of individual financial freedoms and the increasing threats to privacy and autonomy in the world around us. Vexl is the embodiment of this mission.
We didn’t expect to find among its opponents those who were once proponents of privacy and leading innovators in the tech industry.
We firmly stand behind the belief that without the freedom to transact, we have no other rights and that everyone is entitled to free choice, self-determination and privacy.
Apparently, everyone but Apple users, according to Apple.
When exchanging currencies is considered a reckless activity, we know we have found ourselves in the middle of a financial dystopia.
