Recap of Mycelium's Google Play Drama

Few days ago, on the 10th of February, the Mycelium team received a notice from Google in regards to their app. The wallet application got removed by Google for allegedly violating Google play’s section 3.5 of the Developer Distribution Agreement.

This section didn’t really provide the team with a clear enough explanation on why their app could have actually been banned. Mycelium community manager Dmitry Murashchik mentioned this in a Reddit post. members of the team originally thought that their app could have been banned either due to the fees had to apply for transactions or because of its donation button. A simple button that allowed the app’s users to donate to the Mycelium organization.

Turns out that one of their guesses was right. After a response from Google was received as a review of the appeal, it was apparent that the issue was clearly the donation button.

Key part of this response would be the following:

“Donations may only be collected within an app under specific conditions. The donation must be facilitated via a web browser, and any collection made through a secure payment system. Donations are only permitted for validated non-profit charitable organizations (for example, a validated 501(c)(3) charitable organization or the local equivalent).”

It seems like the team wouldn’t be unwilling to remove the donation button if they were warned first. In the response to Google’s review, they mentioned that they simply were not aware that giving their users an option to donate was against the agreement. Their response also included reasons why it wouldn’t be convenient for them and the apps users to just create and upload a new app. Listing trust issues and the need to update the old up.

On the morning of Friday 13 the appeal was accepted and the app has now been reinstated. This time without a donation button and with 0% LocalTrader fees. Murashchik closed his post with a warning to all android developers as it’s apparent that they could get themselves into similar adventures if they accept donations through their app.