If you haven’t started to research whether crypto is relevant for you or your business’ future. Now is the right time to start, particularly if you’re nervous, as you can dip your toe into the crypto waters via Paypal …
I’ll start this monthly update with them as it’s more than likely you’ve heard and/or used them …
Do you use Paypal for your customer’s shopping online?
Well, the global shopping merchant facilitator announced that customers who hold bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash and litecoin in PayPal digital wallets will now be able to convert their holdings into fiat currencies at checkouts to make purchases.
The service, which PayPal revealed it was working on late last year, will be available at all of its 29 million merchants in the coming months.
“This is the first time you can seamlessly use cryptocurrencies in the same way as a credit card or a debit card inside your PayPal wallet,” President and CEO Dan Schulman told Reuters ahead of a formal announcement.
Checkout with Crypto builds on the ability for PayPal users to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies, which the San Jose, California-based payments company launched in October.
Despite the FCA’s warning against investor’s buying into crypto derivatives, the news that Paypal thinks crypto is OK, is likely going to create a massive boost in trust globally of the coin currencies and potentially raise share prices.
As Paypal released its official announcement, so did Tesla who are going one step further …
Where Paypal converts the crypto currency into fiat/US dollars to reduce the risk of the volatile marketplace, Tesla has gone all out and stated very clearly that people can now purchase Tesla goods with bitcoin. At the current market rate, just 1.5 shares in Bitcoin could see you driving off in a brand new car. Known for their future focused products, it will be interesting to see how many other companies adopt this mindset …
So what of crypto.com?
Beginning in 2016, the four founders of crypto.com launched with one clear mission: to accelerate the world’s transition to cryptocurrency.
Their mission stemmed from their simple belief: it’s a basic human right for everyone to control their money, data and identity. Today, Crypto.com serves over 10 million customers, with the world’s fastest growing crypto app, along with the Crypto.com Visa Card — the world’s most widely available crypto card, the Crypto.com Exchange and Crypto.com DeFi Wallet. Every month sees them progressively pushing forwards to make their mission statement a reality.
Chances are high that you’ve seen references to the company across the internet as they’ve gained press almost on a monthly basis with their innovative approach to merging two worlds. Researching them this year has formed an integrated picture of growth, experimentation and robust business structure in the world of blockchain. Based in Hong Kong their team is 900+ strong and expanding on a regular basis.
As Paypal have realised, there’s a need for an emerging number of companies founded on the blockchain who want to crossover with systems in the current world today. It’s the only way for the volatility to subside and for acceptance to move forwards into expansion.
Not to be left behind Paypal, Visa has released that it will be partnering with Crypto.com to offer a crypto settlement system for fiat transactions later this year. Visa’s partners will reportedly be able to exchange USD Coin (USDC) over the credit card’s payment network to clear transactions made in fiat currency.
Essentially, Visa is piloting a program that will allow its partners to use the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain to settle a transaction made in fiat.
According to Visa, its standard settlement process requires partners to send fiat currency via wire transfer, which “can add cost and complexity for businesses built with digital currencies.” The pilot would reportedly allow Crypto.com to send USDC to Visa’s Ethereum address to settle some of transactions under the crypto exchange’s Visa card program by linking Visa’s treasury with digital asset platform Anchorage.
‘Crypto-native fintechs want partners who understand their business and the complexities of digital currency form factors,” said Visa chief product officer Jack Forestell.
‘The announcement today marks a major milestone in our ability to address the needs of fintechs managing their business in a stablecoin or cryptocurrency.’
Is crypto.com secure?
Crypto.com state that they are built on a solid foundation of security, privacy and compliance. Crucially for users though, it’s worth noting that they are the first cryptocurrency company in the world to have ISO/IEC 27701:2019, CCSS Level 3, ISO27001:2013 and PCI:DSS 3.2.1, Level 1 compliance, and independently assessed at Tier 4, the highest level for both NIST Cybersecurity and Privacy Frameworks.
The very fact that Visa is working with them backs up their claims and the level of due diligence involved.
Even more interesting is that Crypto.com has a strategic partnership with hard wallet provider, Ledger, integrating its institutional-grade custody solution, Ledger Vault. A quick Google on Amazon will tell you all you need to know about Ledger and why that’s a pretty positive thing.
Let’s see what April 2021 brings for the crypto world. At the time of go-live Bitcoin was trading at: £
Cherry Martin
