Finally, PayPal accepts bitcoin and signs partnerships with BitPay, Coinbase and Gocoin
Today, PayPal gave “Bitcoiners” good news. Scott Ellison, PayPal’s Senior Director has revealed the companies that will be working with PayPal in the bitcoin integration in an attempt to increase the adoption of bitcoin worldwide. The first completed project is an integration with PayPal’s Payments Hub, which is their alternative payments platform for digital goods. Customers with a bitcoin wallet will now be able to purchase items and other digital content directly with bicoins.
The company states this is PayPal’s next step in helping merchants accept Bitcoin payments and has entered into agreements with leading Bitcoin payment processors BitPay, Coinbase and GoCoin. The company’s choice to work with BitPay, Coinbase and GoCoin was primarily made because of PayPal’s commitment to offer innovative and safer ways for businesses to accept payments.
Scott Ellison commented:
“PayPal is excited about all the innovations taking place in payments these days. More choices in how people create value, share it, buy, sell and trade it; that’s exactly what PayPal is all about. We believe Bitcoin offers unique opportunities as more people and businesses experiment with it. PayPal is excited to work with BitPay to offer new experiences and the trusted service their customers expect.”
Earlier this month Paypal already announced that businesses working with Braintree will soon be able to accept Bitcoin as a payment option through their innovative v.zero SDK and relationship with Coinbase. Now, merchants using the PayPal Payments Hub can create a BitPay merchant account and provide the API credentials into the Payments Hub admin. Customers with a bitcoin wallet will then be able to pay with bitcoin for games, music, videos, news, ebooks, and other digital content.
The company made clear that it has always embraced innovation, but always in ways that make payments safer and more reliable for our customers. PayPal approach to Bitcoin is no different. That’s why the Company is proceeding gradually, supporting Bitcoin in some ways today and holding off on other ways while testing the waters. Furthermore, the Company will comply with regulations in any case, so virtual currency exchangers and administrators interested in working with PayPal in the future should secure the appropriate licenses and put anti-money laundering procedures. 
The three Bitcoin exchange businesses all feel that this is the major step towards acceptance, and strongly believe thing are going to run much faster now.
Coinbase Team commented on their site:
“The news follows closely on the heels of our recent announcement with PayPal’s Braintree, a relationship referred to by its CEO, Bill Ready, as PayPal’s “first foray” into bitcoin. As we continue to work with Braintree and collaborate with its developers over the next several months, this relationship with PayPal will provide another immediate opportunity to bring bitcoin to more and more consumers and merchants.”
PayPal also reassured that it hopes to do more with Bitcoin as the ecosystem continues its evolution.
