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The beta version of Binance Pay was announced a few days ago.
This is a contactless cryptocurrency payment technology designed by Binance.
From the presentation, it appears that it has several things in common with PayPal, so much so that it can be said that Binance was probably inspired by the latter to design it.
Binance Pay will allow users to pay and be paid in cryptocurrency by friends and family all over the world.
In order to use it, it will be necessary to have an account on Binance.com, download and install the App. This will allow the user to create a unique nickname that will allow other users to easily send cryptocurrencies.
The Binance Pay wallet will initially support six currencies, namely Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB), Swipe (SXP), BUSD and EUR.
The fact that it also supports the euro and the stablecoin BUSD, which is pegged to the US dollar, suggests that it could also be used instead of PayPal.
After all, these six cryptocurrencies are the same ones already supported by the Binance Card, the exchange’s debit card launched last year, which allows cryptocurrencies to be spent in fiat currency on the Visa circuit.
In fact, Binance Pay can also be topped up from the exchange’s spot wallet. Indeed, the Binance Pay wallet is essentially the same as that of the Binance Card.
The app will also be equipped with a QR code that allows funds to be sent directly between two Binance Pay accounts.
The differences between Binance Pay and PayPal
The similarities with PayPal are many, but there is a substantial difference.
In fact, although PayPal now allows the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies, it does not yet allow the receiving or sending of tokens, which can only be purchased, stored and sold. By the end of March, the function of fiat currency payments powered by cryptocurrencies will also be enabled, but in that case the recipient’s receipt will be in fiat currency.
In contrast, Binance also allows both receiving and sending cryptocurrencies directly.
The final goal would be to provide a service dedicated in particular to merchants and those who want to cash in cryptocurrency payments, but it is still too early to understand if this will actually happen. Not least because challenging PayPal from this point of view seems an impossible task, unless direct payments in cryptocurrency were to become very widespread.