PayPal finance director John Rainey said in an interview with CNBC on May 16 that the company does not see much interest in digital currencies because price volatility threatens the viability of its merchants' businesses.
PayPal was a pioneer in the acceptance of cryptocurrencies. Merchants could choose to accept Bitcoin (BTC) on the platform since 2014, when BTC was worth around US $ 400.
Today, Rainey said that PayPal currently does not see much interest in the digital currencies of its merchants, since the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies can cause contingent losses, explaining:
"If you are a merchant and you have, say, a 10 percent margin on a product that sells and accepts Bitcoin, for example, and the next day you move 15 percent, you are now underwater in that transaction ... It could have something that attracts consumers, but if the merchants do not accept it, it has little value. At this time, we do not see much interest from our traders, "he commented." But if it's something that stabilizes in the future and is a better currency, then we will certainly support it, "he added.
The latest statement supports the PayPal patent filed in March, which aims to accelerate cryptocurrency transaction times. If the technology can be implemented on a large commercial scale, it could allow cryptocurrency payments to be processed between traders and buyers instantaneously and out of the chain, eliminating large transaction fees and long verification periods.
PayPal, which was launched in 1998, has 237 million active registered accounts, with a payment volume of $ 132 billion in the first quarter of 2018, more than $ 30 billion from the first quarter of 2017.
Yesterday, Square CEO Jack Dorsey expressed optimism regarding the adoption of digital currency on a global scale. At the consensus conference, Dorsey shared his view that cryptocurrencies are the future of a legitimate means of global payment, which reaffirms his earlier comments that Bitcoin will become the "single currency" of the world in a decade.
Dilemmas within PayPal reflect the world
It can be observed that within the platform there are completely opposite positions with respect to the use of cryptocurrencies, being similar to the positions of the regulators of the countries, some want to use them as immediate, while others reflect rejection before it. Hopefully soon the platform will take a single direction on this topic.
Source: CoinTelegraph