PayPal Considers Accepting Bitcoin Payments

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Bitcoin may be on the verge of getting one of the biggest boosts of its short history in its journey to legitimacy. Paypal is conducting background research on Bitcoin movement and contemplating how it could be integrated into a PayPal structure. If PayPal gives Bitcoin the nod, other companies will follow closely behind.

While PayPal is considering adding Bitcoins as a payment option, nothing is set in stone yet. Many other companies have entertained the thought of accepting Bitcoins as payments.
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I like the idea of being able to cash out my bitcoins through paypal right into my bank account.
 
Might be bad news for MtGox in the long run, but for now this news could cause another run up in price me thinks.
Anyone know of another European financial disaster on the horizon? The one in Cyprus worked out quite well for me.
 
Considering alot of bitcoins are used for buying drugs, i can't say this would be a good idea.
 
SunnyD said:
Ridiculous generalization is ridiculous.
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i don't see people buying consumables, or property with btc. there is no way to determine how much btc is illicit trade atm - but other than speculation trade, what else is there?
 
You don't see a lot of people buying legal goods with BTC because you don't see it: it's not something that's really visible to those not directly involved in the transaction.
 
Pretty sure the point of bitcoin was to get away from services like PayPal and not support them.
 
wonderfield said:
You don't see a lot of people buying legal goods with BTC because you don't see it: it's not something that's really visible to those not directly involved in the transaction.
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there's the catch. there is a visible (somewhat) marketplace out there in use with bitcoin as the primary currency... and we all know what that is.

let me know when the equivalent of ebay launches (you know, legal goods) that uses only bitcoin.
 
Speaking of Mt. Gox... Me thinks Ripple may have something to do with Paypal's sudden interest in bitcoins ... ;)
 
kcmastrpc said:
let me know when the equivalent of ebay launches (you know, legal goods) that uses only bitcoin.
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I'm not sure whether or not you're being sarcastic... but this seems like a reasonably good idea.

Anyway, Paypal accepting bitcoins seems ironic, considering most of the time when I see somebody add bitcoins to the types of payments they accept, it's because Paypal are being assholes and have frozen their funds due to "suspicious activity" or whatever bullshit reason they can find to hold on to people's money.

It's fascinating to watch bitcoin right now. I'm not convinced it will be successful in the long run, but it seems to me that with more and more people interacting with bitcoin as a form of currency, that the genie is now out of the bottle and that even if bitcoins fails, another decentralized system will likely take it's place.
 
kcmastrpc said:
there's the catch. there is a visible (somewhat) marketplace out there in use with bitcoin as the primary currency... and we all know what that is.

let me know when the equivalent of ebay launches (you know, legal goods) that uses only bitcoin.
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That would be Bitmit. I bought a GPS off of it last year.
 
The point of bitcoin is to offer an alternative to the ever inflating fiat currencies.
 
OP20 said:
The point of bitcoin is to offer an alternative to the ever inflating fiat currencies.
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So you're insinuating that a virtual currency that can be created by users is going to be immune to inflation? Try again.
 
OP20 said:
The point of bitcoin is to offer an alternative to the ever inflating fiat currencies.
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You're alternative to an inflating currency is one with a wildly fluctuating value?
 
kcmastrpc said:
there's the catch. there is a visible (somewhat) marketplace out there in use with bitcoin as the primary currency... and we all know what that is.

let me know when the equivalent of ebay launches (you know, legal goods) that uses only bitcoin.
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The difference is that THAT market would be under extensive scrutiny should they ever deal in regular currencies. Taxes, reporting, regulation, etc. That is the sole reason that they hold dear to bitcoin.

There are general merchandise vendors that are starting to or considering using bitcoins and a payment option. But when you think about it reasonably, why would any vendor that would normally take established cash alternatives take bitcoins at payment? Right now, it's a business risk. It's barely established, it has a WILDLY volatile valuation, and it requires additional steps to convert it into an accountable currency. Just for easy of use and accounting purposes, it doesn't make sense for a business to participate in bitcoins right now.
 
Well, on the other hand, General Merchandise may actually stabilize it. If the vendors agree on a price, then regardless of how the perceived value fluctuates, users have no choice but to comply.

"This video card is worth 100 bitcoins"

"What?! A bitcoin is worth $100!!!"

"And it can be worth $5 tomorrow. I say it's worth 100BT, take it or leave it!"

I don't normally condone this kind of price fixing between 'supposedly' rival vendors, but with a currency as volatile as this, you'd have to be nuts to price on BT's current market value and risk losing money when the value fluctuates.

As a matter of fact. Paypal may actually stabilize it because they don't follow international exchange rates. Of course, they're also known for screwing people over on exchange rates, so even if the market value fluctuates between $100 and $150, if paypal announces that they will support bitcoin but will only trade from $50 each, they may actually end up putting order into the madness.
 
Emm...

A merchant still needs to pay their bills in "old world" currency for the time being. So either they do a simultaneous money exchange from bitcoins to their currency, or they can let Paypal do this transfer for them...

OR...

A company in a good position to potentially do this is Mt.Gox with their new Ripple exchange taking off with realtime price exchange.

The ease to exchange currencies just got a whole lot easier & should take the wind out of Paypal's sails if they want to dictate anything.

Competition is good! :)
 
Astronomica said:
Considering alot of bitcoins are used for buying drugs, i can't say this would be a good idea.
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.... and we should stop using dollar bills because they are used to get the same illicit things?

Please.
 
It's not going to be paypal dictating tho, it would be the vendors, of which Paypal would be the proxy, to do that, the value has to stabilize and put a real value on it instead of the perceived one. How are the current BT vendors handling the fluctuating exchange rates? Do their products change price everyday?
 
atp1916 said:
.... and we should stop using dollar bills because they are used to get the same illicit things?

Please.
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How is that an argument for bitcoins? To put it another way, the odds of a dollar being used for general purchase rather than illicit is considerably higher than bitcoins.

Hypothetically speaking, if a dollar out of a hundred were used for purchasing illegal drugs, bitcoins would be around 10 out of a hundred. Again this is hypothetical, I don't have the actual numbers, but nothing is either 100% or 0%, but the odds of either being used for illicit transactions would be higher on bitcoins and that was the point.
 
Sly said:
How is that an argument for bitcoins? To put it another way, the odds of a dollar being used for general purchase rather than illicit is considerably higher than bitcoins.

Hypothetically speaking, if a dollar out of a hundred were used for purchasing illegal drugs, bitcoins would be around 10 out of a hundred. Again this is hypothetical, I don't have the actual numbers, but nothing is either 100% or 0%, but the odds of either being used for illicit transactions would be higher on bitcoins and that was the point.
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Dollars are used every day to fund evil in this world, and on a far greater scale than bitcoins could ever hope to emulate.
 
I'm pretty sure more illegal transactions happen with greenbacks than any other currency in the world combined. I don't get what the point of linking BTC to bad people is.
 
atp1916 said:
Dollars are used every day to fund evil in this world, and on a far greater scale than bitcoins could ever hope to emulate.
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Question is. How much of every hundred dollars is used for illicit transactions compared to every hundred bitcoins.
 
CombatChrisNC said:
I'm pretty sure more illegal transactions happen with greenbacks than any other currency in the world combined. I don't get what the point of linking BTC to bad people is.
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Ratio matters, and that's what the people are pointing to. If a hundred trillion dollar transactions are done in a day, and a trillion of that is used by drug cartels. If a hundred million bitcoins were exchanged in a day and fifty million of that were used by drug cartels. Then bitcoins would be considered a primary currency by drug cartels even tho it's only fifty million bitcoins as opposed to a trillion dollars simply because of the ratio.
 
CombatChrisNC said:
I'm pretty sure more illegal transactions happen with greenbacks than any other currency in the world combined. I don't get what the point of linking BTC to bad people is.
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how about we get some more conjecture and speculation? i'm more interested in how this currency isn't being used than how it is being used. black markets will always gravitate towards anonymous currency - the question is whether or not the free market will embrace this.

Accounting, serialized money, and the systems in place exists not only to bring accountability for taxation purposes, but for fraud purposes as well. I believe that part of the reason behind btc volatility is that it is a free currency. Which in turn is why I don't think it'll ever be fully adopted in its current form.
 
I would certainly welcome accountability into btc. I think that would give it the legitimacy the currency needs to actually survive and be useful.

However, to simply say that btc shoudn't be used as a currency because it "funds illegal activities" is just intellectually bankrupt and blatantly hypocritical.
 
Buy a big hat now.

When pigs fly, they poop, just like birds do.

So when you paypal your bitcoins, put the hat on first.
 
Meh if bitcoins REALLY take off govt agencies will use their money to just develop their own hardware to more efficiently mine than the people and then build massive datacenters so they can corner the market... They won't lose at their own game
 
I think paypal is the perfect company to start using bitcoin. Lets start with their low risk. They take a portion of the sale, they don't care how much the sale is they get a portion of it. In reality it costs them almost nothing to support that sale it could easily be a loss leader for a while just like paypal here. In fact I think paypal here might have a lot to do with this. Ever since paypal got beat to the market by square they are very nervous about missing out on a big thing. If people want to convert to bit coin paypal can exchange for them with the BTC they have taken out of sales not needing to put in their own money. Finally unlike a bank or many other institutions paypal doesn't service loans etc.. Low cost for them, corners the market from competitors etc...
 
You all know that the more bitcoins are mined the longer it takes for the next bitcoin to be mined, right? Bitcoins are for practical purposes in finite supply which makes them unsuited to be used as modern day currency.
 
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