If Bitcoin does succeed, I don't see a regular person wanting to manage his own wallet and security let alone understand all the complexity that is bitcoin.
I see Bitcoin becoming the underlying infrastructure on which companies like Paypal, Square, Banks and other financial institutions trade.
If Paypal does invest in adding Bitcoin, it would be right step ahead for Bitcoin and for Paypal.
The real win is that if it becomes the underlying infrastructure, it is still possible for the common man to have a "manual wallet".
You won't end up in walled garden situations where a single vendor controls with massive fees and restrictions, but you have no choice but to use them, because hey, that's all everybody accepts and uses.
If an online wallet service/paypal/visa is gonna keep your business, they have to make what they offer be worth their fees.
Wallets are never going to be mainstream the way they work right now, so for most people, online wallets are the way to go - at least until hardware wallets are a common thing, like say in the form of a ring. If that ever catches up, I think it will be the way to go for people who want to have personal wallets.
The main line:
"So I've been spending a lot of time looking at it. It's truly fascinating, actually, the way the currency's been designed and the way inflation is built-in to pay for miners and all that, it's truly fascinating. And I think, for us at PayPapl, it's just a question of whether Bitcoin will make its way to PayPal's funding instrument or not, and we're kind of thinking about it right now."
Oh, dear. If I were the president of PayPal and wanted to make quick buck, I would buy some bitcoins, released news like this, and sold my bitcoins the next day with a nice profit. And then, I could just deny the news, sending bitcoin value back where it was so that it is ready for the next exploiter... Heh.
But seriously, PayPal and Bitcoin are by nature rivals. If PayPal wanted to have a crypto-currency, it would develop its own, not validate and boost value of another one gaining nothing in the process.
A lot of what keeps regular Joes away from bitcoin is its complexity and the difficulty of keeping your funds secure. If PayPal were to make the most secure, easiest-to-use bitcoin wallet, they could profit greatly from it and also provide something that doesn't really exist anywhere yet.
All PayPal does right now is help you get dollars from point A to point B, and in the process they take a cut. They could do the same thing with bitcoin. I don't think it would be competition with bitcoin, it would be promoting it to mutual benefit.
I would be afraid of them providing this service without allowing you to export your data, however, which seems like the kind of thing PayPal might like to do. If your bitcoins were trapped in their system you're always in danger of having your account frozen as has been a problem up to now. Part of the purpose of bitcoin is to be able to avoid that, so I'd hate for PayPal to bring that whole problem to the bitcoin world.
But if they approach it properly, bitcoin could be a great opportunity for PayPal, instead of a threat.
David Marcus makes ~$1.5-2M / year, and has $11M+ in stock options, plus whatever he made from selling his last startup (Zong). I really don't think he needs to worry about gaming the bitcoin ecosystem.
Also: Developing a new currency is hard, and inherently antagonistic with other governments. BTC, on the other hand, is basically tolerated for the time being.
Bitcoin is more than a currency, it's also a massive, international, and reliable transaction network. Furthermore it isn't tied to any individual entity (government or corporation) so there is value in its impartiality and lack of restrictions on senders or recipients.
Paypal would do very well buying and selling Bitcoins. Buying bitcoins with Paypal is a very common request, which most sellers won't do because Paypal makes it very easy to rip off the seller.
>Buying bitcoins with Paypal is a very common request, which most sellers won't do because Paypal makes it very easy to rip off the seller.
Where are you observing that it's a common request? Could it be a common request because it's easy to rip off the seller, in the same way that assistance transferring a dead relative's funds out of Nigeria is a common request?
Paypal already encourages you to use your bank account instead of a credit card. Paypal is not Visa/mastercard. They have to make their money in addition to whatever the credit card is making. It only makes sense they look at bitcoin as a method for frictionless digital payment.
Bitcoin itself doesn't need PayPal, but the bigger picture here is that PayPal integrating BTC could boost awareness like few things could for the currency.
PayPal seems to have justly earned their reputation for frustrating many developers. Having said that, this is a new President and he has done nothing but say the right things since coming in. They've also realized major improvements to their API's/Docs etc. I'm not saying it's kumbaya time just yet. But I do think some reciprocal open mindedness from the developer community is appropriate to encourage further advancements in PayPal's approach to the web dev world. At least until we see that the leopards spots are no different.
I disagree: If they had no interest in integrating with bitcoin, the smart move for paypal would be to just spread FUD about bitcoins at every opportunity.
that's so garbage, I remember back in the early days, they were closing down accounts used in bitcoin exchanges. Getting money into bitcoin exchanges was a huge problem.
Besides, with bitcoin, why use paypal? Is paypal going go try to act as an exchange between btc and usd?
If you have a bunch of Bitcoin money but need to do business with people who will only accept fiat currencies, you need some kind of exchange service. I suspect that is what Paypal will do.
This along with comments from Western Union have surprised me. But it does make sense. These companies would be foolish not to stay open to pivoting with market demands. Right now it is "we're aware of it", if it starts to take off I expect them to integrate it into their business models to capture part of that growing value.
Remember that in the gold rush you got rich selling pickaxes. WU and Paypal stand to profit from bitcoin with very little risk if they play it right.
Didn't Paypal start out as a Palm Pilot app that transmitted money using cryptography? I think it's interesting that bitcoin is kind of the 21st century version of that.
Anything that increases bitcoin liquidity is good for bitcoin. Anything that increases PayPal's market opportunity is good for PayPal.
A lot of people want to purchase bitcoins with their PayPal accounts, and since PayPal is already licensed as a MSB, this just requires technology. They can build or buy (Coinbase), and make a pretty significant revenue on conversion fees. They could also charge a small fee for bitcoin transactions over a certain amount, in exchange for convenience, or, for example, transaction insurance, which can be underwritten, eliminating the risk.
PayPal can do a lot for Bitcoin, and vice versa. If Bitcoin continues to be successful, PayPal can continue to have a significant portion of the online transaction pie.
Yeah, and for that matter, why would anyone partner with Facebook, when you could easily build another social network? I mean look at Google, they clearly pulled that off without a problem.
Bitcoin is used and has value. The same could most likely not be said about a hypothetical currency created by Paypal, specially considering one of the most important assets Bitcoin has is its decentralized and unregulated nature.
Can't click this link right now. Abbreviated transcript please?
It's weird to see Paypal and Bitcoin in one sentence on the domain bloomberg.com... Bloomberg is one of the biggest financial companies and entirely against Bitcoin. I can't rhyme this; what are they saying about it?
Bloomberg is a news organization too. Them not covering financial news like Bitcoin would be the weird thing - it'd be like FOX News not covering terror attacks because they're anti-terrorism.
He say's: Bitcoin is truly fascinating. For us at PayPal it's just a question of whether bitcoin will make its way to PayPal as a funding instrument or not, and we are kind of thinking about it.
It sounds like they see it as a way to get money into paypal. That is, it's no different than a bank deposit. In other words, an easy way to transfer BTC->USD ("funding instrument"). What they'll then do is dump the BTC they get on the market.
Not a bad idea, but it seems they're thinking too small.
BC does lack an easy way to buy them right now for many countries, so this would be welcome. e.g. I'd either have to find a local seller (unlikely) or go through 2x different online "currencies" till I get the BC.
Its strange though to mention something like that at a "thinking about it" level. If paypal were to actually implement it, surely taking the world by surprise would be the better strategy.
[+] [-] khet|13 years ago|reply
I see Bitcoin becoming the underlying infrastructure on which companies like Paypal, Square, Banks and other financial institutions trade.
If Paypal does invest in adding Bitcoin, it would be right step ahead for Bitcoin and for Paypal.
[+] [-] Drakim|13 years ago|reply
You won't end up in walled garden situations where a single vendor controls with massive fees and restrictions, but you have no choice but to use them, because hey, that's all everybody accepts and uses.
If an online wallet service/paypal/visa is gonna keep your business, they have to make what they offer be worth their fees.
[+] [-] mtgx|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] tonez|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lingben|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vlasta2|13 years ago|reply
But seriously, PayPal and Bitcoin are by nature rivals. If PayPal wanted to have a crypto-currency, it would develop its own, not validate and boost value of another one gaining nothing in the process.
[+] [-] ok_craig|13 years ago|reply
All PayPal does right now is help you get dollars from point A to point B, and in the process they take a cut. They could do the same thing with bitcoin. I don't think it would be competition with bitcoin, it would be promoting it to mutual benefit.
I would be afraid of them providing this service without allowing you to export your data, however, which seems like the kind of thing PayPal might like to do. If your bitcoins were trapped in their system you're always in danger of having your account frozen as has been a problem up to now. Part of the purpose of bitcoin is to be able to avoid that, so I'd hate for PayPal to bring that whole problem to the bitcoin world.
But if they approach it properly, bitcoin could be a great opportunity for PayPal, instead of a threat.
[+] [-] milesskorpen|13 years ago|reply
Also: Developing a new currency is hard, and inherently antagonistic with other governments. BTC, on the other hand, is basically tolerated for the time being.
[+] [-] ihsw|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] umsm|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] axusgrad|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eurleif|13 years ago|reply
Where are you observing that it's a common request? Could it be a common request because it's easy to rip off the seller, in the same way that assistance transferring a dead relative's funds out of Nigeria is a common request?
[+] [-] abrkn|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] amalag|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mcantelon|13 years ago|reply
Unless your account is frozen...
[+] [-] jonknee|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Mahn|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chiph|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jusben1369|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drcode|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nemonoko|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] amalag|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hogu|13 years ago|reply
Besides, with bitcoin, why use paypal? Is paypal going go try to act as an exchange between btc and usd?
[+] [-] betterunix|13 years ago|reply
If you have a bunch of Bitcoin money but need to do business with people who will only accept fiat currencies, you need some kind of exchange service. I suspect that is what Paypal will do.
[+] [-] mtgx|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] benhebert|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ceejayoz|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Mahn|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nazgulnarsil|13 years ago|reply
Remember that in the gold rush you got rich selling pickaxes. WU and Paypal stand to profit from bitcoin with very little risk if they play it right.
[+] [-] oomkiller|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iguana|13 years ago|reply
A lot of people want to purchase bitcoins with their PayPal accounts, and since PayPal is already licensed as a MSB, this just requires technology. They can build or buy (Coinbase), and make a pretty significant revenue on conversion fees. They could also charge a small fee for bitcoin transactions over a certain amount, in exchange for convenience, or, for example, transaction insurance, which can be underwritten, eliminating the risk.
PayPal can do a lot for Bitcoin, and vice versa. If Bitcoin continues to be successful, PayPal can continue to have a significant portion of the online transaction pie.
[+] [-] unreal37|13 years ago|reply
I mean, they're the 800 lb gorilla of online payments. They'd be smarter to invent their own thing than to use someone else's if they can.
[+] [-] Mahn|13 years ago|reply
Bitcoin is used and has value. The same could most likely not be said about a hypothetical currency created by Paypal, specially considering one of the most important assets Bitcoin has is its decentralized and unregulated nature.
[+] [-] lucb1e|13 years ago|reply
It's weird to see Paypal and Bitcoin in one sentence on the domain bloomberg.com... Bloomberg is one of the biggest financial companies and entirely against Bitcoin. I can't rhyme this; what are they saying about it?
[+] [-] ceejayoz|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] magoghm|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] apaprocki|13 years ago|reply
You say this as if it is fact. Care to expand on why you feel this way?
[+] [-] tlrobinson|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] altoz|13 years ago|reply
Not a bad idea, but it seems they're thinking too small.
[+] [-] Havoc|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Havoc|13 years ago|reply