from the stable-coin-might-exit-the-barn dept.
PayPal confirms it's exploring the launch of its own stablecoin:
PayPal has been expanding its cryptocurrency business since it opened trading to all users in 2020. It allowed US customers to check out with cryptocurrency and increased its crypto buy limit over the past year. In the future, it might also offer a stablecoin of its own. Jose Fernandez da Ponte, SVP of crypto and digital currencies at PayPal, has confirmed to Bloomberg that the online payment provider is "exploring a stablecoin." He also said that the company will work closely with relevant regulators "if and when [it] seek[s] to move forward."
A developer named Steve Moser found hidden code and images for a "PayPal Coin" in the company's app and shared them with Bloomberg. Based on what he discovered, the PayPal Coin will be backed by the US dollar.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @07:45PM (3 children)
...in a rich man's world.
We need more Crypto stories and for God's sake, please post more NFT and blockchain stories too.
The sooner we all convert, the better right?
Disclaimer:
I have some Unicorn farts to sell.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @09:38PM (2 children)
https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/woman-who-earned-200000-selling-fart-jars-hospitalized-by-her-work/ [iflscience.com]
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Monday January 10 2022, @12:04AM (1 child)
So. Running a machine (in this case, the human body) outside of normal parameters in order to maximize short term profit causes problems. Whodathunkit?
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 10 2022, @04:29AM
I didn't click to read it, but I've been seeing on my Twitter trending and suggestions that this woman was now going to sell NFTs for her farts.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Mojibake Tengu on Sunday January 09 2022, @07:54PM (2 children)
Reminder: Corporations may legally bankrupt.
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @08:32PM (1 child)
But can't let the peon's do the same! Seriously, time to roll back corporate giveaways.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday January 10 2022, @01:37PM
Actually, people can also bankrupt, but people have to live with the consequences for 7+ years whereas Corporations simply dissolve (and the principals often go reform a new corporation to do the same thing even before the bankrupt one is gone.)
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Touché) by progo on Sunday January 09 2022, @08:50PM (3 children)
Most of the US dollars that exist were commanded into existence in the last 2 years. I don't think the word "stable" is appropriate, here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @09:56PM
I think by stable they mean blockchain without any of the compelling reasons for using a cryptocurrency.
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Monday January 10 2022, @10:30AM (1 child)
> Most of the US dollars that exist were commanded into existence in the last 2 years. I don't think the word "stable" is appropriate, here.
To be fair, a currently that has been losing value consistently over many decades can be considered "stable", in the sense that it is a stable rate of devaluation. As such all fiat currencies are stable in that sense, you can pretty much guarantee they will be worth less as each day passes.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday January 10 2022, @04:06PM
If you look at the inflation adjusted value of the US dollar since 1970, it has actually been very impressively managed for a near constant 2% per year rate of overall inflation. We will have to look back around 2025 or 2030 to see if the current situation is a temporary blip or a full on deviation from the 50 year stable trend.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @09:30PM (5 children)
PayPal should be ashamed of providing material support to the Muslim jihadis trying to overthrow America.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @09:41PM (1 child)
Muslim jihadis are busy in Afghanistan, England, France, Sweden, etc. They don't have time to overthrow America.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 10 2022, @08:10PM
also, ZOG brand America is the money raising center for the jew puppet jihadis.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @09:44PM (2 children)
As opposed to the Jewish jihadis?
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @10:19PM (1 child)
That's absurd.
We have a fascist movement right here right now today that wants to enshrine Protestantism, or some twisted version thereof, as the state religion in the USA. My grandmother's Christian Reformed faith was downright reasonable compared to some of this nonsense, especially some of the more absurd like Christian Identity that radicalize decent people and turn them into Q-conspiring Christian mullahs. Watching large numbers of people begin believing this shit has convinced me that there may or may not be some kind of cosmic superbeing or enlightened state of superbeing, but there is certainly a devil, and an increasing number of her servants claim to be Christians.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 11 2022, @01:01AM
It's always the ones yelling loudest about "freedom" that want everyone to do what they say.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by corey on Sunday January 09 2022, @10:23PM (5 children)
We need more crypto currencies? Isn’t there like dozens already?
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Sunday January 09 2022, @11:52PM (4 children)
There are lots of crypto currencies out there, but since it's far more profitable to start or get in really early with a well-hyped crypto than to try to mine the last available Bitcoin, it's no surprise that PayPal would want to start their own.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday January 10 2022, @01:40PM (3 children)
Stablecoin isn't supposed to be a miner's pyramid scheme. It's all kinds of other schemes that are likely to attract regulation some day, but the value of a stablecoin is supposed to be... Stable. Not inflating.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday January 10 2022, @02:06PM (2 children)
And that won't work, for the same reason the gold standard didn't work all that well: The business cycle means that the value of money isn't a constant. Central banks have their flaws, but they've also solved major problems: e.g. during 2008-2015 or so it was the Fed, not Congress and definitely not the president at the time, who really allowed the economy to recover.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday January 10 2022, @04:01PM
Well, I can see it working if it's based on a flexible fiat currency like the USD. Then operating a stable coin is a matter of retaining sufficient reserves. If I were in charge of the regulations, I'd require 100% reserves for the float with at least weekly independent audits for something as big as PayPalCoin is likely to become. We're talking 52 separate independent auditing firms that have to each be convinced once a year that the Coin is properly backed by liquid deposits available for immediate redemption on demand.
Sure, that deflates much of the monetary benefit of operating a crypto-coin, but I also feel that the crypto mechanism itself has sufficient benefits that it is still worthwhile to operate a 100% reserve backed Coin.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 10 2022, @08:14PM
"Central banks have their flaws"
Understatement of the year. Bleeding countries dry, while writing their laws, is a little more than "having flaws". What a slave.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday January 09 2022, @10:38PM (1 child)
The entire point of cryptocurrency is to do away with middlemen like Paypal. Duh...
This Paypalcoin is just another "we have our own coin too" thing. I'll just keep using real currencies thank you very much.
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Monday January 10 2022, @10:20AM
I don't know any details of course, but as I see it Paypal wouldn't be a middleman. If it is a blockchain, you can use it without paypal (unless paypal restricts the mining privilege to itself). Only would paypal serve as an exchange with a garuanteed exchange rate. There can be other exchanges apart from paypal.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 10 2022, @12:00AM (3 children)
IIRC, way way back the government had an opportunity to decide if PayPal and other online payment services should be regulated like banks and they decided not to do it.
I'm thinking this means that PayPal's "stable" coin won't be required to have the kinds of reserves that banks do. That means that just like in days of old, a "run" on it could bankrupt the coin, or if they're really stupid and don't hold enough reserves and compartmentalize it, it could bankrupt PayPal.
This is a recurring theme in the libertarian and crypto world--the drive to eliminate the cruft accumulated by government experience in the field leads to a re-creation of the cruft, but in a less robust way. This was played to comedic affect on The Simpsons, and it was funny because it's true.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 10 2022, @02:41AM (1 child)
As I've posted here before, I don't think bankers (as a group) are all that smart. Thus the need for regulation to prevent the bankers from engaging in risky behavior with their customers money (deposits), and other sorts of bad behavior. The temptation to engage in this risky behavior is clear--big bonuses when a gamble works out. And whining "too big to fail" when a deal goes south.
While PayPal and other payment processors aren't regulated like a bank, I wonder if they are any smarter (as a group) than bankers...?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mhajicek on Monday January 10 2022, @07:46AM
Smart or not isn't the issue. They'll happily risk other people's money and wellbeing so long as they get theirs. This often means individuals will make decisions that are not in their company's best interest.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday January 10 2022, @01:42PM
Bankruptcy is a big win, for the debtors.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Monday January 10 2022, @03:04PM
My experience with PayPal's customer service imeans I wouldn't trust them (or their Stablecoin) if they gave it to me wrapped in a bow. Paypal has a sketchiness factor that ranks right there with Comcast, Wells Fargo, and Uber.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 10 2022, @08:07PM
"He also said that the company will work closely with relevant regulators "if and when [it] seek[s] to move forward.""
yeah, we know you will, you fucking whore-ass piece of shit.