PayPal’s first participation in cryptocurrency started as the part of Libra’s consortium that included Visa and MasterCard. While PayPal’s support for the Libra token was short lived, the company’s CEO Dan Schulman featured in an interview with Fortune to discuss his involvement in the landscape. The main reason for PayPal’s back out from the Libra Association was related to its extensive roadmap, which according to Schulman, was not aligned with PayPal’s current roadmap. He added,
“It wasn’t an acrimonious divorce or anything like that. It’s just that they will start going down a road that we’re very interested in looking at and monitoring, and maybe later, there are ways we can work together.”
Schulman also clarified that Libra’s ongoing with the U.S. regulations was not PayPal’s concerns and that blockchain technology “really needs to do something that the traditional rails can’t do.” Additionally, due to cryptocurrency’s inherit volatility, PayPal merchants do not prefer the asset as they usually operate on small margins.
While arguing that instead of efficiency, blockchain innovation must focus on identity, Schulman stated,
“It’s more commodity-like than it is cash-like right now. But you can think of use cases in different countries and different places where it can be more stable than the alternatives.”
The PayPal CEO further stated that he holds only Bitcoin among other cryptocurrencies, which places him on the same track with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who also chooses to stay away from altcoins.
