Decred Co-Founder says Cryptocurrency may not fit PayPal’s model

As PayPal is preparing to collaborate with crypto assets and offer cryptocurrency transactions, some industry experts have given their opinion about the development. Recently, Jake Yocom-Piatt, Decred co-founder, lent his voice on the imminent partnership. He criticized the feasibility of combining PayPal with cryptocurrency, stating that both of them cannot work together. He is not sure of the validity of the rumors surrounding the acceptance of cryptocurrency by PayPal.

“It’s hard to say whether these are rumors or not regarding PayPal accepting cryptocurrencies soon,” he said in an email.

Pairing seems odd

Recently, it was reported that PayPal wants to fill cryptocurrency and blockchain-related job positions. Some new also indicated that PayPal is looking to list crypto assets.

While Yocom-Piatt believes that the addition of cryptocurrency transactions on PayPal’s service would ensure greater availability of digital assets, he added that it may not fit into PayPal’s model. According to him, PayPal is known for denying users access to legitimately-acquired funds on its platform with no good reason. Offering cryptocurrency transactions will be a digression of its business model, he said.

That’s because cryptocurrencies are designed to prevent the system where users’ funds will be restricted. As a result, it will be an odd combination if what’s in the news is actually what Paypal is planning, he noted.

PayPal involved in more regulations

Several months ago, there was a report about PayPal, where the payment giant stalled or flagged off some transactions. PayPal and its subsidiary Venmo utilizes a system that automatically flags off certain keywords used in the payment memo. According to PayPal’s policy, the keywords could be an indication of a violation of U.S. sanctions.

The crypto-community in Youtube has faced a similar flagging issue, although this is not transaction-related. YouTube decided to block some messages from crypto-based YouTube accounts, citing policy violations. The YouTuber crypto-community was not happy about the flagging off. Users whose accounts were affected denied violating any policy. Their accounts were subsequently reinstated

Bitcoin, crypto’s major and flagship asset, serves as a method of storage and value transfer, as people can carry out transactions free from government control. Users can hold value and transfer without authorities having a major say on the value of the asset.

On the contrary, payment services such as PayPal utilize government currencies in controlled parameters. According to Jake Yocom-Piatt, this difference in the operating system may be the major hindrance if Paypal integrates cryptocurrency into its system.