2013-12-10 CNET - PayPal Online President says Bitcoin is good

[cr1776]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57615080-93/paypal-president-david-marcus-bitcoin-is-good-nfc-is-bad/

The leader of eBay's online payment division, paying close attention to his industry's future, thinks Bitcoin is a good idea -- even though it's not yet actually a currency. Tap-to-pay, though, is a dud.

Edit:
And:
"

I really like Bitcoin. I own bitcoins," Marcus said at the LeWeb conference here. However, he believes people don't correctly understand what bitcoins actually are today, and he's yet ready to let people link their bitcoin wallets with their PayPal accounts.

People are confused. They think because it's called cryptocurrency it's a currency. I don't think it is a currency. It's a store of value, a distributed ledger. It's a great place to put assets, especially in places like Argentina with 40 percent inflation, where $1 today is worth 60 cents in a year, and a government's currency does not hold value. It's also a good investment vehicle if you have an appetite for risk. But it won't be a currency until volatility slows down. Whenever the regulatory framework is clearer, and the volatility comes down, then we'll consider it.

[Cunningham]

People are confused. They think because it's called cryptocurrency it's a currency. I don't think it is a currency. It's a store of value, a distributed ledger. It's a great place to put assets, especially in places like Argentina with 40 percent inflation, where $1 today is worth 60 cents in a year, and a government's currency does not hold value. It's also a good investment vehicle if you have an appetite for risk. But it won't be a currency until volatility slows down.

I like this point of view. Bitcoin as a store of value, this makes a lot of sense.

[cr1776]

I like this point of view. Bitcoin as a store of value, this makes a lot of sense.

I agree.  The number of uses of the blockchain is large, and one of them is as a store of value.  Given the situation with FACTA, inflation in many countries (e.g. South America, potentially lots of other places), banking privacy, instability in the banking systems in some countries (e.g. south Europe), exchange controls in many places, gold and other PM limits (e.g. India) etc, the store of value aspect is quite valuable to many people around the world. 

[oakpacific]

His point of view is interesting, especially the part about how Bitcoin is a store of value not necessarily because of the rampant speculation ,but its power to balance the fiat flood created by the governments.

[BitChick]

Glad to hear he likes Bitcoin and he owns Bitcoin.  Anyone who owns them typically likes them!   

That said, I still wish that Paypal would be open to using them.  I suppose that this article implies that they are just waiting for the timing to be right to do so.  Granted, if Paypal did embrace Bitcoin then the volatility would go down sooner perhaps?  I would think it would help launch BTC into the mainstream faster.  But it is great to see more high profile endorsements for sure.

[exstasie]

It is quite interesting to see his thoughts as Bitcoin not being a currency.  It's still young and definitely has a lot of time to evolve before it matures.

[goxed]

Didn't people email him  complaining about BFL nondeliveries to get their chargebacks?