PayPal is showing interest in developing a possible stablecoin. The news broke out when Steve Moser who is a developer took to his Twitter platform and indicated that he saw references of “PayPal Coin” within the company’s iOS app. Speculations started to swirl within the financial world to see if this was indeed true.
Bloomberg finally adds credibility to the news by interviewing Jose Fernandez, who is the senior vice president for crypto and digital currencies at PayPal. He confirmed that the rumors are true.
“We are exploring a stablecoin,” Bloomberg quoted Fernandez da Ponte as saying. “If and when we seek to move forward, we will, of course, work closely with relevant regulators.”
Despite the news, at the moment it does seem like it’s only a concept as a company spoke person said that what Mr. Moser found was from a hackathon that took place within the company.
A hackathon is a competition that is normally held within tech companies. Within these hackathons, programmers get to work on new and exciting projects that can benefit the company.
This process is good for ideation and quick implementation of prototypes. PayPal is not the first company to want a piece of the crypto pie. Facebook tried to implement a digital currency program for its social media ecosystem and the regulators never took that idea lightly.
It’s going to be interesting to see how PayPal can navigate through the convoluted yet muddled financial landscape. Especially in a period filled with uncertainty within the crypto landscape.
Over the last few years, PayPal had been slowly integrating cryptocurrency into its business with different features.
