PayPal CEO, Dan Schulman, during an interview with fortune, revealed that he owns Bitcoin but no other cryptocurrency. This is exciting news for everyone in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space but even more so for Bitcoin maximalists.
The PayPal CEO got to talk about many other issues during the interview giving insights on the company’s work in the blockchain space. Schulman stated that they are finding a lot of promise in blockchain technology and are exploring opportunities that they can exploit. For instance, he hinted that PayPal and other companies could adopt blockchain technology if it can help lower their costs.
It’s about the applications on top of it, not necessarily using it to lower the cost by one-eighth of one eighth of a fraction. By the way, if it does turn out to be a lower-cost infrastructure, all of us will move to it.
However, Schulman acknowledges that for this to happen, the blockchain has to offer a lot more in comparison to the existing systems to merit such a huge shift.
It’s intriguing to us, but it really needs to do something that the traditional rails can’t do. Most people think that blockchain is about efficiency, but the system today is pretty efficient.
Schulman also explained PayPal’s exit from the Libra Association stating that they wanted to focus their attention elsewhere. The CEO pointed out that the exit was not acrimonious but was rather based on internal decisions and their organizational mission.
Schulman explained that upon learning more about Libra they became aware that there were a lot of things left to do, from both their end and that of the Libra Association. He stated that they are interested in learning more about the technology and filling the gaps before the proceeding.
You know, we think if we focus on our own roadmap, we’d be able to advance financial inclusion faster than if we put all these resources against Libra.
PayPal is leaving the door open and will be willing to take a second look at a future date to explore whether that can work together once these gaps have been filled. In the meantime, the company continues to work on some blockchain and cryptocurrency initiatives. However, the CEO could not share much information about their current projects. Instead, he chose to describe them as not necessarily competitive with Libra.
Photo by Kris Krug for #PopTech
Don’t worry, we hate spam too
one weekly digest, just the important stuff.
