Dive Brief:
-
EBay CEO John Donahoe told shareholders last week that PayPal is “activity considering” bringing bitcoin into its PayPal payment service, reiterating statements he made earlier this year that there is no reason not to.
-
But critics say that PayPal itself already offers a viable payment alternative that has more stability than bitcoin, according to a report by International Business Times magazine.
-
As of April, eBay has enabled shoppers to buy digital currency, mining equipment, and mining contracts. Donahoe did not spell out how bitcoin transactions would work on PayPal.
Dive Insight:
EBay CEO John Donahoe is certainly making noise about integrating bitcoin and other virtual currencies into the company’s PayPal payment service, but there’s no clear indication of how that might work as a practical matter. Bitcoin’s volatility in value and its troubling record in criminal enterprises could make it more bother than it’s worth for PayPal, which is already a major payment alternative in many financial transactions worldwide.
