Reports started circling lately, that PayPal, one of the world’s largest online payment processors, will allow users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin.
Regardless of whether that’s going to come to fruition, PayPal has spent the last decade marketing Bitcoin in a fairly decisive manner.
Earlier this week, crypto-oriented media CoinDesk broke the news that fintech giant PayPal intends to roll out direct sales of cryptocurrency to its userbase of more than 325 million people.
Per the report, three people familiar with the matter said that PayPal and Venmo would introduce “some sort of a built-in wallet functionality so you can store it there.”
Back in 2019, the CEO of PayPal, Dan Schulman, admitted that he owns Bitcoin. However, he also said that there hadn’t been a lot of demand for cryptocurrencies by merchants who use the platform because of its high volatility.
On the other hand, the CTO of the company, Sri Shivananda said that cryptocurrencies need to be used for payments to grow.
Irrespective of whether the above comes into fruition or not, PayPal has been marketing Bitcoin for a decade now. It pins its own centralized and restrictive policies against Bitcoin, which is the exact opposite.
There are countless reports where PayPal has closed accounts for no apparent reasons. Another thing to consider is the downright outrageous transaction fees, as well as the rates for currency conversions.
As opposed to this comes Bitcoin. The only barrier to entry with BTC is for the user to have access to a computer and internet connection. Literally, nothing else is required. You can access your funds regardless of your wealth, business, or location. Moreover, once you’re part of the network, there’s no central authority that can censor your participation.
On another note, Bitcoin transaction fees have been known to be particularly low compared to all legacy institutions, including PayPal.
Just now, someone sent over 3500 BTC, worth over $32 million, for a fee of only $2.
Despite the above, if PayPal allows people to buy Bitcoin would definitely be a step in the right direction for the cryptocurrency market. After all, with a reported user base of about 325 million people, this means that there’s not enough BTC for each user to own more than 0.064 BTC.