Bitcoin Forum

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000281677

Let me quote - "At Paypal we will have to integrate digital currencies into our wallet"
He has also said that he himself owns some bitcoins.

What does this mean in the short term , what will happen when people hear that Paypal  may support Bitcoin in the indeterminate future ?
I think the bare news will cause a rise in the price of a bitcoin , but by how much ?

And what does this mean in the long term , when the day comes that Paypal accepts Bitcoin ? Will this convince more people to join use Bitcoin on its own or will Bitcoin just be another payment method , muddled up inside Paypal ?

This will definitely increase Bitcoin awareness , but will this make Paypal take over Bitcoin business from sites like bitstamp and blockchain.info's wallet or will this make people leave Paypal for Bitcoin ?

And last but not least , will the forum explode as news of this spreads ? There has always been a don't mix Bitcoin and Paypal policy , how easily will people switch to Paypal ?

People who don't use credit cards will be able to add funds to their Paypal accounts in less than a banking week.

This will lead to increased Ebay purchases and hence increased profits for Ebay and its subsidiary Paypal.

They'd be crazy not to accept Bircoin.

Obviously it will lead to more people selling bitcoin for fiat which will drive the price downwards

won't it?

 ;)

and don't forget fees for using bitcoin on paypal should be cheaper - so both the seller and buyer should be incentivised to use it rather than their credit cards.

i think not

spending btc on pp is somewhat like selling “otc“
it wont affect exchange prices much

To some extent a fair call..!
But Hypothetically it will first go above with all the demand that will emerge after paypal accepts btc and new adopters getting in..! and those adopters will use bitcoin as digital currency not as an Investment that is what it is created for and that is why btc has some value. and after that it will lead more people selling btc for fiat but they will avoid selling it below the price they bought it [just my assumption] all in all a fair deal.

You don't think PP accepting BTC will 'affect prices much'

?

it might increase the price a bit because it is a form of acceptance, but it's a bit pointless because bitcoin doesn't need paypal.

wasn't that the whole point?

i mean using BTC on PP wont drive down price like sellinf on Stamp

I think it will have detrimental effect on btc price when and if Paypal starts accepting bitcoins. Paypal, like Western Union, faces an agonizing future where BTC becomes the mainstream payment option. Paypal's only options at this time are:

1. Delay and postpone the inevitable mass adoption of bitcoins
2. Co-opt and integrate bitcoins and become another bitcoin processor

They are doing whatever they can do to prolong Option #1  right now. Option #2 is painful to them because it means the loss of their hugely profitable business model.

This is simple standard S-curve exponential growth in adoption. Each wave of merchants that accept bitcoin are progressively larger and larger, from small independent shops, to overstock, to ebay, to amazon, etc.

The effect is more people use Bitcoin and thus more people hold onto some number of bitcoins, and thus demand increases and price with it. I disagree with those who say the price will go down because now people can spend their coins, it's easy to spend your coins today.

If ebay/paypal adopt bitcoin, then I'll conduct all of my buying and selling there in bitcoin and keep x number more coins in an ebay/paypal wallet for such a purpose. This increases holdings.

I'd be happy to keep coins in a paypal wallet,much more than on an exchange

I think it will have a positive effect on the price of BTC, simply because more people will adopt bitcoin if PayPal starts supporting it. Although in the long term, BTC may overtake PayPal if people start realizing that you can't get a wallet suspended the same way PayPal suspends and limits people's accounts all the time. So the news is good for BTC, but potentially very bad for PayPal.

The more people and business start to accept bitcoin the better it will be and I think it will cause a bit price rise if not much and it will also effect ebay in a good way, as it will easy for more people to use bitcoins to purchase stuff off of ebay. I am actually looking forward to this.

I don't think they would implement BTC in a way where you could pay for an item on eBay with BTC. They'll probably have a system where you can add funds to your PayPal account using BTC, and it converts it to your local currency. Either way this news will definitely have a positive effect on the price.

I see, I thought once you're able to fund your paypal account using BTC, it can be used anywhere and at any business which accepts paypal.

I think there is much truth to this. Even though Bitcoin has the long term capability to largely render a massive amount of PayPal's business obsolete, they are a trusted household name and by integrating Bitcoin ahead of the crowd stand a very good chance of gaining a large market share. Adapt or die, and they are opting for adapt. In a speculative 'down the road' hypothetical situation, where mass adoption of Bitcoin has become a reality, I suspect it will look much the same as the history of credit cards.

With credit cards, each store had their own at first, mostly large department stores. This is the equivalent of the individual businesses accepting Bitcoin. Then came the "Diner's Club" cards, which could be viewed as the equivalent of PayPal becoming involved, wider range of use, but still somewhat limited. The next step then would be sometime later major financial institutions getting on the Bitcoin wagon, essentially paralleling the birth of Bank Americard...or what we now know today as Visa. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Paypal as we know it will die when that happens.

You're wrong.  PP essentially becomes the trusted 3rd party escrow service although it doesn't use those scary terms.

Awesome  :D

That would have to be a pretty massive project to develop, given Paypal's size and infrastructure. When do you think this could possibly become a reality? I agree: moon.

An escrow service that's gonna take huge fees.

In my opinion when (if?) Paypal will accept bitcoins, the adoption between people and merchants will quickly increase, the value will follow.

That will happen. Even more if Amazon and eBay start using it.

I assume Paypal is going to act is a wallet in a way other wallets currently can't: you can access your bitcoins from the paypal wallet, and convert them into any fiat you like during a paypal purchase. That is a great impovement compared to the currently existing wallets, especially if fiat to bitcoin is accepted as well.

Hopefully payments in bitcoin are allowed as a payment option as well using the blockchain. I am however quite sure you won't see a bitcoin address on eBay, because paypal acts as escrow taking fees.

But if it converts to fiat when you pay, then it's not different than BitPay.

In many countries outside of USA, it's hard to link normal checking bank account with PP. Only credit cards are available. So, for example, many are not able to buy expensive things on ebay / shops, because their credit card can stretch, let say, up to 500-1000EUR.
 
Even if PP only allows to deposit BTC and immediately converts it to EUR, it's still gonna be useful for many people. And anyone without a credit/debit card is going to have a chance to buy online anywhere PP is accepted.

I think, in the short run, having PP on board is great, but we don't need PP at all in the long run, though.

Completely agreed. I hope that will come quite soon. With PayPal starting accepting, there will be mass adoption. There's a possibility of being able to buy BTC with PayPal too.

If you have sufficient means to afford purchases above your credit limit the credit card company will provide higher limits. That's how they print money (not literally like the banks but in a cash cow fashion ;))

I would not consider this to be printing money, it is more how fractional reserves work. The credit card is going to be repaid (on average when taking into consideration all the interest they collect).

Printing money is when a central bank buys debt with money they do not really have.