Author: The CEO of PayPal, one of the world’s largest and most established online payment processors, has revealed in an interview that he owns Bitcoin and no other cryptocurrencies. He also talked about Libra and why his company decides to withdraw from the project.
PayPal’s CEO Owns Bitcoin
In a recent interview with Fortune, the CEO of PayPal, Dan Schulman, shared his views on cryptocurrencies and revealed interesting insights about the work his company is doing in the field.
He said that there is a lot of promise in blockchain technologies and that PayPal finds it intriguing. However, he also reiterated that today’s existing systems are already “pretty efficient”, and, as such, the benefits of blockchain that they find intriguing revolve more around identity than efficiency.
Furthermore, he also shared that there hasn’t been a lot of demand for cryptocurrencies by merchants who use PayPal because of the high volatility. Still, he believes it’s a very interesting idea.
“That doesn’t mean that I don’t think crypto is an interesting idea and that people are trading it quite a bit. It’s more commodity-like than it is cash-like right now. But you can think of use cases in different countries and different places where it can be more stable than the alternatives.”
When asked if he, personally, owned any cryptocurrencies, Schulman admitted that he owned Bitcoin – and only Bitcoin.
Why Did PayPal Withdraw from the Libra Association?
As CryptoPotato reported earlier, PayPal was one of the first companies to leave the Libra Association. Schulman shared some interesting insights on the matter.
According to him, when the head of Libra, David Marcus, first pitched the idea of Libra to PayPal, it was something that the company thought was very interesting and promising. However, as they did further research, they found out that there is a lot that needs to happen for it to see daylight. Moreover, Schulman also said that PayPal’s very own roadmap requires a lot of focus and that it made more sense to channel its resources in their own direction.
Nevertheless, the CEO also said that it’s not out of the question for the two companies to join forces again later on.
