A Word of Advice about Paypal & Crypto

[bpovtmg]

I think everybody heard that Paypal is going to add crypto into its wallets/services.

A word of advice:
If you are NOT a fully legal US or European citizen, your Paypal fiat and crypto funds are ALWAYS at risk. Paypal is famous about blocking fiat accounts and that paranoia will be ten times higher with crypto. Never have a lot of money in your Paypal accounts, both fiat and crypto. Use Paypal when you only really need to.

Remember the Crypto Mantra:
NOT YOUR KEYS, NOT YOUR COINS !

Keep your money to yourself, be your own bank as it was originally established by Satoshi.

[karsyla]

It is going to be a really crappy crypto service. Similar to the one Revolut offers - you will be able to buy crypto, hold it in paypal wallet, sell it but you will not be able to send it out freely out of your paypal wallet.

[Steamtyme]

This topic is better suited to "Service Discussion" - currency Exchange is a board mainly for P2P trades.

Not sure if there are already ongoing topics about this or not. You can move this thread by selecting "move topic" by scrolling down and selecting it at the bottom left.

The service is pretty gross to an experienced crypto user. I do see a small benefit for someone who wants to get their feet wet. Paypal is super familiar to the majority of the world, so it's easy to "buy" your first sats through them and let them hold your hand and coins at first. Ideally people will then see the value in holding for themselves and then branch out from there. In the end I do see it as a net positive, by increasing adoption through a baby step.

[davis196]

If you are NOT a fully legal US or European citizen, your Paypal fiat and crypto funds are ALWAYS at risk.

So you think that US and European citizens are somehow protected and their funds are NOT at risk of being blocked by Paypal?Are you kidding me?The risk is totally the same.It doesn't matter if you live in the US or EU.
Almost everyone with a computer and a little bit of experience online knows about the flaws of Paypal,so your advice is not needed.Millions of people know that Paypal sucks.Just looks at Paypal's Trustpilot score.

[mk4]

It is going to be a really crappy crypto service. Similar to the one Revolut offers - you will be able to buy crypto, hold it in paypal wallet, sell it but you will not be able to send it out freely out of your paypal wallet.

At which.. it's probably safe to assume that it's pretty much a lot of people do when investing in bitcoin. A lot of people buy bitcoin through services like Coinbase, and pretty much just leave the funds there to be able to sell them after some time.

Don't get me wrong, it's a bad service in the perspective of a hardcore bitcoiner like me that likes to spend his coins and prefers holding the coins in a non-custodial wallet, but for the masses? It's probably going to be a decent service for them.

[Wexnident]

It's still pretty safe for non-US in terms of their crypto service, since afaik, only US citizens are able to avail the crypto service they are currently offering. They're planning to expand the service worldwide, but it's still only at some sort of beta which is only for US citizens.

Additionally, I doubt any heavy trader would actually buy their entire trading assets in PayPal. Mostly the service would probably for those new to the scene, and/or those that only hold a small amount of money in PayPal that want to buy crypto. I myself don't really use Paypal, and mostly use it as means to receive payments from various services tbh.

[hatshepsut93]

Some people even use PayPal in countries where it's not officially supported, by using VPN and faking KYC documents during registration. If such users tried to buy crypto, it could lead to more scrutiny and potential ban on their account, because everything crypto-related is generally viewed as risky operation by centralized payment entities.

Don't get me wrong, it's a bad service in the perspective of a hardcore bitcoiner like me that likes to spend his coins and prefers holding the coins in a non-custodial wallet, but for the masses? It's probably going to be a decent service for them.

I'd rather recommend Coinbase to a newbie, at least it has lower fees, market prices and ability to withdraw your coins. The only benefit of PayPal is that it would allow complete beginners to get a psychological feeling of how it is to own Bitcoin, while being in a familiar to them environment.

[Oshosondy]

Nothing of my concern with PayPal, I have been able to handle bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies in a way that I do not need PayPal, I was not even using custodial exchanges for cryptocurrencies neither do I use custodial wallets, so what is my concern with PayPal. Although, this is a good advice to people that are depending on custodial way, but I prefer self custodial, it has been the best because of privacy. Also, know that PayPal is already supporting bitcoin.

[so98nn]

Also with the PayPal feature like claim back the money service is worst for the businesses. Many users do fraudster acts even after getting services from the e-commerce. They will initiate the refund from PayPal with false information and PayPal never take it seriously.

Moreover, I am not sure how they will act with the crypto but surely such false claims will happen on this platform now and then.

In India, RBI has issued notice that no user can hold the fund on PayPal however they could use it as and when required policy. It means if you receive the payment on PayPal then it immediately gets credited into the bank accounts.

That is the best way to use PayPal I guess and RBI has taken thoughtful decision in this regards.

[traderethereum]

I think the crypto user will not use the Paypal service to buy crypto because we already have an exchange or local seller or local exchange that can help us to buy crypto, bitcoin and altcoin.
We don't have to use Paypal if we are worried about the worst thing that can happen later.
But maybe for Paypal users, it is no problem if they use Paypal to buy crypto as they already verified their account, and they can directly buy crypto from their account.
It is a choice to use Paypal or not use Paypal, and that will depend on each user, whether they are a Paypal user or crypto user.

[molsewid]

A word of advice:
If you are NOT a fully legal US or European citizen, your Paypal fiat and crypto funds are ALWAYS at risk. Paypal is famous about blocking fiat accounts and that paranoia will be ten times higher with crypto. Never have a lot of money in your Paypal accounts, both fiat and crypto. Use Paypal when you only really need to.

I want to know what happens next when Paypal blocks your account in their system? You can't get your money back? They will not give you other options to withdraw your remaining funds? Some local exchange in our country locks accounts too. But they will require some documents, and after completing these required documents, you can get your remaining funds to your bank account. If Paypal does not give your money back, use Paypal only if you don't have other options.

[allthingsintime]

Very disappointed with PayPal's idea of a cryptocurrency wallet. At least they are acknowledging the existence of cryptos, though. Its a start.

[cheezcarls]

I think everybody heard that Paypal is going to add crypto into its wallets/services.

A word of advice:
If you are NOT a fully legal US or European citizen, your Paypal fiat and crypto funds are ALWAYS at risk. Paypal is famous about blocking fiat accounts and that paranoia will be ten times higher with crypto. Never have a lot of money in your Paypal accounts, both fiat and crypto. Use Paypal when you only really need to.

Remember the Crypto Mantra:
NOT YOUR KEYS, NOT YOUR COINS !

Keep your money to yourself, be your own bank as it was originally established by Satoshi.

Even that I’m a Paypal user for more than a decade, I would not try deposit some BTCs in their payment processor. And you’re right, not your keys, not your coins. Despite that it’s bullish and was introduced to millions of users worldwide, they are still controlling or having the custody of our money there. Plus, the risk of getting our accounts freezed even without doing anything wrong (when your BTC value was skyrocketing beyond their limits).

I’ll stick to Ledger and Trust Wallet for now.

[acquafredda]

It's up to everyone judging whether accessing crypto via PayPal is a good choice or not. For many people that prefer a platform that they altready know PP will probably be the way to go, however for experienced users nothing will change as they will stick to their HW, Wasabi, Electrum, etc.

[Darker45]

I think everybody heard that Paypal is going to add crypto into its wallets/services.

A word of advice:
If you are NOT a fully legal US or European citizen, your Paypal fiat and crypto funds are ALWAYS at risk. Paypal is famous about blocking fiat accounts and that paranoia will be ten times higher with crypto. Never have a lot of money in your Paypal accounts, both fiat and crypto. Use Paypal when you only really need to.

Remember the Crypto Mantra:
NOT YOUR KEYS, NOT YOUR COINS !

Keep your money to yourself, be your own bank as it was originally established by Satoshi.

Even that I’m a Paypal user for more than a decade, I would not try deposit some BTCs in their payment processor. And you’re right, not your keys, not your coins. Despite that it’s bullish and was introduced to millions of users worldwide, they are still controlling or having the custody of our money there. Plus, the risk of getting our accounts freezed even without doing anything wrong (when your BTC value was skyrocketing beyond their limits).

Even if you are interested to make BTC deposits to your Paypal account, you cannot do it. Deposits and withdrawals from Paypal will always be through fiat. You won't be given a Bitcoin address to begin with. Moreover, if you buy Bitcoin through Paypal and your personal wallet indicates your Bitcoin balance, it doesn't even mean your individual wallet has the Bitcoin. Bitcoins in Paypal are stored in what they call as “omnibus account” rather than in each of their user's wallet.

Shopping, which will accordingly be introduced next year, will also be settled in fiat as far as partner merchants are concerned.

All in all, this is what others would call as an abomination.

[mk4]

I'd rather recommend Coinbase to a newbie, at least it has lower fees, market prices and ability to withdraw your coins. The only benefit of PayPal is that it would allow complete beginners to get a psychological feeling of how it is to own Bitcoin, while being in a familiar to them environment.

And I'd personally do the same. But the thing is, A LOT of people already have PayPal accounts to start with; hence they wouldn't even need to do research on what bitcoin exchange to use, create another account on the chosen platform, submit all the AML/KYC, and all that jazz. Convenience is a big factor.

[bitfera]

It is going to be a really crappy crypto service. Similar to the one Revolut offers - you will be able to buy crypto, hold it in paypal wallet, sell it but you will not be able to send it out freely out of your paypal wallet.

[Slow death]

it seems to me that many people simply forgot about the past (I say this because the price increased very soon after this news) and started buying lots of bitcoins and did not even remember that paypal Is a centralized service with many rules. this proved that most people are more concerned with profits (adoption) and not necessarily concerned with decentralization as they have said a lot in the past. I heard (I don’t know if it’s right) that paypal will not allow people to take cryptocurrencies and withdraw from paypal directly to the bank, I didn’t quite understand how this will work and I also don’t know if this new feature will be available for my country

[bpovtmg]

I'd rather recommend Coinbase to a newbie, at least it has lower fees, market prices and ability to withdraw your coins. The only benefit of PayPal is that it would allow complete beginners to get a psychological feeling of how it is to own Bitcoin, while being in a familiar to them environment.

And I'd personally do the same. But the thing is, A LOT of people already have PayPal accounts to start with; hence they wouldn't even need to do research on what bitcoin exchange to use, create another account on the chosen platform, submit all the AML/KYC, and all that jazz. Convenience is a big factor.

Good points, but I bet PP will not allow to simply send your btc to another btc wallet. They will allow you to buy coins from your PP wallet for a rip-off rate as it's normal for them after submitting a hell lot of documents, then they'll block your account for some reason for 180 days, then something else.

My original point was not about (fake) PP convenience, but about NOT YOUR KEYS / NOT YOUR COINS. And definitely PP is one of the worst choices for keeping that mantra.

[bpovtmg]

Satoshi is laughing like hell about the human race seeing how his radical idea of decentralization and "being her/his own bank"  is willingly moved into hands of ugly centralized monsters.