eBay CEO, John Donahoe said the company is considering possibilities of bitcoin integration with PayPal.
John Donahoe, eBay CEO, confirmed at the annual shareholders meeting on May 13 in San Jose, California, that the firm is in plans to integrate bitcoin with PayPal.
California-based PayPal business was acquired by eBay in 2002. According to Donahoe, the virtual currency will play an important role in the world trade in future.
He also added: “Exactly how that plays out, and how we can best take advantage of it and enable it with PayPal, that’s something we’re actively considering. It’s on our radar screen.”
However, this is not the first time Donahoe spoke about bitcoin.
Last year he admitted that eBay was interested in adding the digital currency to PayPal and the company would follow the recent developments in this sector. He stated that “digital currency is going to be a very powerful thing”.
“I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at it and it’s truly fascinating. The way that the currency has been designed and the way inflation is built in to pay for miners and all of that is truly fascinating.”
In February, he was invited to the Bloomberg network television, where he said that PayPal was working on a new digital wallet.
“Well, you can use digital currencies in the PayPal digital wallet, that’s in fact what PayPal is doing – is building a digital wallet that can take multiple types of currency,” he told at the program.
It is still unclear when exactly eBay is going to integrate bitcoin, but the recent comments of Donahoe were made on behalf of the company, not from his personal view.
Donahoe is not the only one who expressed his support for bitcoin. In 2013, David Marcus, PayPal president, said he is a fan of the digital currency and in his opinion the company may soon add bitcoin option.
Although eBay didn’t add bitcoin as a payment option, there has already been witnessed some virtual money activity on its website.
In the beginning of April, a “Virtual Currency” category was added by the online marketplace. It enables users and traders to purchase and sell digital currencies, mining contracts and mining hardware.
The company is quietly upgrading the section without any advertisement of the new category.
In December 2011, eBay filed a payment application, according to which the company will develop a new virtual currency payment system. Bitcoin will be among several options offered by the system.
Besides, eBay’s new digital wallet for holding different types of currency is under development now.
Polina is an undergraduate student at Belarusian State Economic University (BSEU) where she is studying at the faculty of International Business Communication for a degree specializing in Intercultural Communication. In her spare time she enjoys drawing, music and travelling.
