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comment by wasoxygen
wasoxygen  ·  1565 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: PayPal to allow cryptocurrency buying, selling and shopping on its network

Crypto space is already replete with scams. Can you make any specific predictions about how things will play out at PayPal?

    Cryptocurrency payments on PayPal will be settled using fiat currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, meaning merchants will not receive payments in virtual coins, the company said.

It sounds to me like PayPal will offer their customers a virtual "wallet" with a bitcoin balance. Customers can convert funds between their dollar balance and their bitcoin balance, but they can't initiate bitcoin transactions with third parties or transfer bitcoin to their own address. If you buy something using bitcoin, PayPal just settles the transaction the usual way but debits your bitcoin balance at the current exchange rate.

PayPal could do all this without ever touching actual cryptocurrency, but they would have to cover any big gains in bitcoin value. So they can just keep a pile of cryptocurrency in cold storage to hedge against volatility and simulate everyone's bitcoin balance. PayPal is already making income on the float; this is a smart way to get more people to store dollars with them.