PayPal Integrates Bitcoin Processors BitPay, Coinbase and GoCoin

An anonymous reader writes: PayPal today announced partnerships with three major Bitcoin payment processors: BitPay, Coinbase and GoCoin. The eBay-owned company wants to help digital goods merchants accept Bitcoin payments, although it is starting with those located in the U.S. and Canada first ("We are considering expanding to other markets," a PayPal spokesperson told TNW. "Stay tuned.")

PayPal says it chose to integrate the third-party functionality directly in the PayPal Payments Hub because the aforementioned trio already offers its customers protections when dealing with the virtual currency. The company envisions anything that can be obtained digitally, such as video games and music, being sold in Bitcoin.

Comments

Re:But...but...

[Richy_T]

Some people say the same about Bitcoin too.

bitcoin (and altcoins) are circling the drain

[Ritz_Just_Ritz]

Look at the drop in the value of bitcoin (in dollar terms) over the last year. The same goes for any of the alt coins, at least the ones with enough volume in the market to be remotely useful.

It's all over but the shouting. The pump and dumpers are making some money, but as a currency it's just too risky to hold since the value is tanking.

Re:bitcoin (and altcoins) are circling the drain

[mythosaz]

Look at the drop in the value of bitcoin (in dollar terms) over the last year.

Uh, wut?

It was almost $100 on this day, a year ago, and now it's about $440.

Re:bitcoin (and altcoins) are circling the drain

[Ritz_Just_Ritz]

And it was over $1000 in November 2013 and just a few days ago it was in the 300's. It's whipsawing up and down at the whim of the Russian and Chinese mob. Way too unstable to be used as a currency. No thanks.

Re:bitcoin (and altcoins) are circling the drain

[Tokolosh]

Gold price today: $1,222
A year ago: $1,327 (down from $1,775)

Re:betrayed, the paypal haters were #yoda

[mythosaz]

As long as those "few rich hands" are BitPay, Coinbase and GoCoin - because PayPal still isn't actually accepting "bitcoin."

PayPal takes "BitPay," "Coinbase" and "GoCoin."

BitPay, Coinbase and GoCoin take BTC.

Middlemen actually provide a service in this case

[perpenso]

so many middlemen, so much percent ... so much commission for so little work, its almost free money

In this particular case the middle provide a valuable service, they keep a merchant's accounting simple and the middlemen take all the risk.

Using something like coinbase, a merchant never sees or touches a bitcoin. The merchant does all their pricing and accounting in fiat currency (dollars, euro, etc). If a customer wants to use bitcoins the merchant sends the fiat price to the exchange, the exchange returns an equivalent bitcoin amount and a bitcoin payment address (the exchange's), when the coins are received the exchange informs the merchant and most importantly credit the merchant's account for the exact fiat amount originally specified. regardless of the coin's current exchange rate. The merchant's accounting is not complicated by new IRS rules regarding bitcoins (its an asset not a currency) since they never touch a coin, nor do they care about coin price fluctuations.

"directly in the PayPal payments hub", like Visa

[raymorris]

TFS says "PayPal says it chose to integrate the third-party functionality directly in the PayPal Payments Hub"
Sounds to me like, from a user's point of view, PayPal will be accepting Bitcoin. When you use your Visa card with Paypal, it goes through at least two third-party banks, but you as a customer don't know or care about that. It sounds like paying with Bitcoin will be similar to paying with your Visa card. In both cases, Paypal works with third parties, but you as a PayPal customer don't have to think about how that happens behind the scenes.

Ironic

[forrie]

I find this all very ironic.

Fairly recently, Paypal had been executing a series of direct attacks on people found to (or suspected to) be selling digital currency. They were relentless, reversing transactions without sufficient information, throwing multiple collection agencies at people and not answering legal inquiries; probably because they feel they are above the law. And in fact, if what I've been reading is true, they have been getting away with quite a bit.

Now, here we are with Paypal finally attempting to get in (and likely try to dominate) the game.

I still maintain companies like Paypal need to be regulated, with tighter rules as a regular banking institution. I will continue to press my gov't representatives on this issue.

Think "protocol" not "money"

[DrYak]

Yup, the value of BTC does vary a lot. That doesn't make the bitcoin payment protocol any less valuable to exchange money around.
That only means that, if you want stability and predictibility, you'd better hold you value in a currency like EUR or USD, and exchange it to BTC only to do the payment (automatically by a payment processor - e.g. one of the listed 3 or any other one, or manually at an exchange).

But don't think this is about enabling BTC as yet another account currency at PayPal (in fact, that's not possible).

It's about a way to transfer funds to a paypal merchant. An alternative to using a credit card (an alternative to Visa or Mastercard).
And an alternative that gives you a freer and wider choice of middlemen to pick from (to pay by credicard on the internet, your basically restricted to only pick between Visa Inc. and MasterCard - to pay the bitcoin protocol, any solution that follows the protocol is acceptable. Bitpay. But also Coinjar. But also localbitcoins. But also convering your coins at BTC-e. etc.)