chepicap.com
One of the co-founders of PayPal has claimed that the company had initially intended to launch its own crypto token. Luke Nosek was speaking on a panel at the Davos 2019 World Economic Forum.
According to Nosek, "the initial mission of PayPal was to create a global currency that was independent of interference by these, you know, corrupt cartels of banks and governments that were debasing their currencies."
The panel had been discussing cases of hyper-inflation, including the recent situation in Venezuela, which has seen the country turn increasingly towards Dash (DASH) as a payment method. One panel member claimed that DASH is preferable to PayPal in the country as many PayPal transactions are cancelled by desperate cash-strapped Venezuelans who pretend to be the victims of fraud, in order to seek a refund. Transactions on the blockchain are irreversible and therefore guarantee funds for vendors.
The PayPal team's early efforts to make their payment system entirely decentralized were unsuccessful as investors pushed them to get their product to market as quickly as possible, and they eventually "learnt to play" by the rules of major established institutions like SWIFT and VISA. Nosek praised Bitcoin (BTC) and other crypto projects for taking their time, making sure to "build the right thing, before...pushing for adoption", and said that he hoped the crypto space doesn't cave to the same pressures that he had faced.
Read more: What could make Bitcoin go mainstream again?; Will Bitcoin replace fiat money?