[2020-10-21] Paypal to allow Bitcoin buying and selling

[M-BTC]

LONDON (Reuters) - PayPal Holdings Inc joined the cryptocurrency market on Wednesday, allowing customers to buy, sell and hold bitcoin and other virtual coins using the U.S. digital payments company’s online wallets.

PayPal customers will also be able to use cryptocurrencies to shop at the 26 million merchants on its network starting in early 2021, the company said in a statement.

PayPal hopes the service will encourage global use of virtual coins and prepare its network for new digital currencies that may be developed by central banks and corporations, President and Chief Executive Dan Schulman said in an interview.

“We are working with central banks and thinking of all forms of digital currencies and how PayPal can play a role,” he said.

U.S. account holders will be able to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies in their PayPal wallets over the coming weeks, the company said. It plans to expand to Venmo and some countries in the first half of 2021.

Other mainstream fintech companies, such as mobile payments provider Square Inc and stock trading app firm Robinhood Markets Inc, allow users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, but PayPal’s launch is noteworthy given its vast reach.

The company, based in San Jose, California, has 346 million active accounts around the world and processed $222 billion in payments in the second quarter.

Cryptocurrencies tend to be volatile, making them attractive to speculators, but a lot less appealing to merchants and shoppers. Transactions have been slower and more costly than other mainstream payment systems.

Cryptocurrency payments on PayPal will be settled using fiat currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, meaning merchants will not receive payments in virtual coins, the company said.

Many central banks around the world have expressed their intention to develop digital versions of their currencies in the coming years, while Facebook Inc-led the creation of a cryptocurrency project called Libra in 2019. PayPal was a founding member but dropped out after a few months.

PayPal, which has secured the first conditional cryptocurrency license from the New York State Department of Financial Services, will initially allow purchases of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies called ethereum, bitcoin cash and litecoin, it said. It partners with Paxos Trust Company to offer the service.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-paypal-cryptocurrency/paypal-to-allow-cryptocurrency-buying-selling-and-shopping-on-its-network-idUSKBN2761L6

[1714789487]

1714789487

[Carlton Banks]

really?








edit: apparently not, lol. Paypal won't let users withdraw BTC, although you can send BTC to your Paypal blackhole account (and watch while your account gets suspended for unknown amounts of time)

[IconFirm]

Yup, fuck that. Paypal looking to cash in & rip-off customers as usual. Black hole is right.

[bbc.reporter]

Having price exposure on bitcoin and not have the ability to use this will fuel it more to become only another speculative investment.

However, Paypal did mention that they will allow their users to spend their coins on where Paypal is accepted on 2021.

[bryant.coleman]

edit: apparently not, lol. Paypal won't let users withdraw BTC, although you can send BTC to your Paypal blackhole account (and watch while your account gets suspended for unknown amounts of time)

PayPal regularly suspends user accounts for silly reasons. When they are doing this for fiat accounts, you can just imagine what will happen if we add Bitcoins to our PayPal account. In case someone still intends to store Bitcoins in his PayPal account, then he should be ready to give details of all his Bitcoin transactions since 2009 (even after that there is a chance that they'll suspend your account). For noobs who want to purchase $10 or $20 worth of BTC for fun, this is going to be a great option. But not for the experienced cryptocurrency users.

[sanjusajan]

paypal wallet is the  most popular in the world and i think they should have to give the permission to buy and sell bitcoin 
because i have heard a news that we can withdraw bitcoin in paypal account but the users should use it legally so that the paypal team will also support them.

[cr1776]

paypal wallet is the  most popular in the world and i think they should have to give the permission to buy and sell bitcoin 
because i have heard a news that we can withdraw bitcoin in paypal account but the users should use it legally so that the paypal team will also support them.

"Legally" where?   Who's laws apply?  Who decides?  What happens when China or Russia or someone in the EU or the US pressures PayPal to lock someone's account?

A centralized company to a decentralized currency is a recipe for disaster for anyone who decides they want to do something that the powers that be don't like:  want to spend $10 gambling?  Locked.  What to receive $10 from your friend who won it gambling?  Locked.  What to support a web site that isn't in the pocket of a giant media company?  Oops, locked.  Look at how Twitter, Facebook etc are censoring different views.  Just wait until they can lock your wallet if you dare to disagree.

Until PayPal allows people to withdraw bitcoin, it is not a lot of use.

[hv_]

Same as Revolut et al.  Kinda 2nd closed layer 

 

[bbc.reporter]

paypal wallet is the  most popular in the world and i think they should have to give the permission to buy and sell bitcoin  
because i have heard a news that we can withdraw bitcoin in paypal account but the users should use it legally so that the paypal team will also support them.

"Legally" where?   Who's laws apply?  Who decides?  What happens when China or Russia or someone in the EU or the US pressures PayPal to lock someone's account?

A centralized company to a decentralized currency is a recipe for disaster for anyone who decides they want to do something that the powers that be don't like:  want to spend $10 gambling?  Locked.  What to receive $10 from your friend who won it gambling?  Locked.  What to support a web site that isn't in the pocket of a giant media company?  Oops, locked.  Look at how Twitter, Facebook etc are censoring different views.  Just wait until they can lock your wallet if you dare to disagree.

Until PayPal allows people to withdraw bitcoin, it is not a lot of use.

There was no news or announcement that Paypal would allow cryptocoin withdrawals.

Also, Paypal would never allow cryptocoin withdrawals. They would be open to the liability that criminals and terrorist organizations would be moving funds through them.

[hv_]

paypal wallet is the  most popular in the world and i think they should have to give the permission to buy and sell bitcoin  
because i have heard a news that we can withdraw bitcoin in paypal account but the users should use it legally so that the paypal team will also support them.

"Legally" where?   Who's laws apply?  Who decides?  What happens when China or Russia or someone in the EU or the US pressures PayPal to lock someone's account?

A centralized company to a decentralized currency is a recipe for disaster for anyone who decides they want to do something that the powers that be don't like:  want to spend $10 gambling?  Locked.  What to receive $10 from your friend who won it gambling?  Locked.  What to support a web site that isn't in the pocket of a giant media company?  Oops, locked.  Look at how Twitter, Facebook etc are censoring different views.  Just wait until they can lock your wallet if you dare to disagree.

Until PayPal allows people to withdraw bitcoin, it is not a lot of use.

There was no news or announcement that Paypal would allow cryptocoin withdrawals.

Also, Paypal would never allow cryptocoin withdrawals. They would be open to the liability that criminals and terrorist organizations would be moving funds through them.

They already do KYC / AML duties, but what happens on (soft) forkery ? Coin-protocols go full dark, make AML harder / impossible ?  Will they list zcash, monero,... btw ?

[farrellronald]

this will make everything even easier than ever. as most people use paypal this is gonna make a difference however i am not sure if this news will make the bitcoin more expense as the media are not good for cryptocurrencies

[cr1776]

paypal wallet is the  most popular in the world and i think they should have to give the permission to buy and sell bitcoin  
because i have heard a news that we can withdraw bitcoin in paypal account but the users should use it legally so that the paypal team will also support them.

"Legally" where?   Who's laws apply?  Who decides?  What happens when China or Russia or someone in the EU or the US pressures PayPal to lock someone's account?

A centralized company to a decentralized currency is a recipe for disaster for anyone who decides they want to do something that the powers that be don't like:  want to spend $10 gambling?  Locked.  What to receive $10 from your friend who won it gambling?  Locked.  What to support a web site that isn't in the pocket of a giant media company?  Oops, locked.  Look at how Twitter, Facebook etc are censoring different views.  Just wait until they can lock your wallet if you dare to disagree.

Until PayPal allows people to withdraw bitcoin, it is not a lot of use.

There was no news or announcement that Paypal would allow cryptocoin withdrawals.

Also, Paypal would never allow cryptocoin withdrawals. They would be open to the liability that criminals and terrorist organizations would be moving funds through them.

Exactly, being locked in to PayPal is a huge problem if you ever want to have more than a credit on paypal's books without having to sell and realize a taxable event (gain hopefully).

It is better than nothing, but only a half-way method of doing it.

[bbc.reporter]

paypal wallet is the  most popular in the world and i think they should have to give the permission to buy and sell bitcoin  
because i have heard a news that we can withdraw bitcoin in paypal account but the users should use it legally so that the paypal team will also support them.

"Legally" where?   Who's laws apply?  Who decides?  What happens when China or Russia or someone in the EU or the US pressures PayPal to lock someone's account?

A centralized company to a decentralized currency is a recipe for disaster for anyone who decides they want to do something that the powers that be don't like:  want to spend $10 gambling?  Locked.  What to receive $10 from your friend who won it gambling?  Locked.  What to support a web site that isn't in the pocket of a giant media company?  Oops, locked.  Look at how Twitter, Facebook etc are censoring different views.  Just wait until they can lock your wallet if you dare to disagree.

Until PayPal allows people to withdraw bitcoin, it is not a lot of use.

There was no news or announcement that Paypal would allow cryptocoin withdrawals.

Also, Paypal would never allow cryptocoin withdrawals. They would be open to the liability that criminals and terrorist organizations would be moving funds through them.

They already do KYC / AML duties, but what happens on (soft) forkery ? Coin-protocols go full dark, make AML harder / impossible ?  Will they list zcash, monero,... btw ?

KYC/AML is not perfect. We have witnessed banks used as mediums for money laundering and terrorist financing. Paypal also might be presently used for money laundering and terrorist financing. They do not need more risk and the liability from regulators.

They only want to offer retail cryptocoin gambling hehehe.

[InvoKing]

First impression: whoah that's cool, the biggest wallet in the world will allow me buying and selling bitcoin.
After thinking a liiiiittle bit: wait a minute!
PayPal is locking accounts for the silliest imaginable reasons, it is like an employee there having a bad dream so he decided to randomly lock a bunch of accounts and ask their owners to prove from where they got "their" money and to post their photo with a lion. Yea I am exaggerating but we all know PaymeyourmoneyPal.

[Harlot]

I think overall I can say this is good news since originally they planned that they will launch this in their Venmo application/platform but now they will be implementing this to the main Paypal platform which I think will give a bigger coverage for the customers within Paypal. For people looking for signs of mass adoption I think this is one of the steps where a big company is stepping up in the crypto industry and will take advantage of their name to grab quickly some market shares.

[bbc.reporter]

@Harlot. However, can it really be considered mass adoption for bitcoin even if the users of Paypal are never touching bitcoins?

[bryant.coleman]

@Harlot. However, can it really be considered mass adoption for bitcoin even if the users of Paypal are never touching bitcoins?

I disagree with you here. It doesn't matter whether the PayPal users are in control of the private keys or not. If someone thinks that he is holding cryptocurrency in his PayPal wallet, I would assume that it gives a boost to the acceptability of Bitcoin. Obviously many of these PayPal users, in due time will be setting up desktop wallets or online wallets to store Bitcoins on their own.

[bbc.reporter]

@bryant.coleman. Your coins in Paypal are paypalcoins and nothing else. I would also go far to argue that this is a scam from Paypal that they have adopted crypto. The only thing they brought is cryptocoin gambling for their users.

[bryant.coleman]

@bryant.coleman. Your coins in Paypal are paypalcoins and nothing else. I would also go far to argue that this is a scam from Paypal that they have adopted crypto. The only thing they brought is cryptocoin gambling for their users.

I would rather compare it with Tether. In Tether also, you are only having a token (which is supposedly backed up with real USD). PayPal BTC is also similar. Someone else is holding the coins, and it's like they have issued a token to you promising that this token represents the net worth of those coins. For people who are OK with this, PayPal is a good option.

[bbc.reporter]

@bryant.coleman. How is that good for the search for real adoption for bitcoin? Paypal should might as well issue their own token and use that. However, they need the popularity of bitcoin and implement a system that would not bring them any problems on compliance and advertise that as bitcoin acceptance.

It is a scam.