Exchange of value: differences between PayPal and cryptocurrencies

Written by Davies on / Reading time: 3 minutes.

If we talk about buying, selling, and send money over the internet, PayPal is the first thing that comes to your mind. This online payment system allows you to transfer money and it has become an alternative to the electronic world since its foundation by Max Levchin in 1998. It is one of the largest companies of the world that offers an internet payment system, but it is not the only one. The cryptocurrencies also allow operations between users. Yes, with a completely different functionality.

Do you want to learn about the main differences between the exchange of value with PayPal and with virtual currencies?

Exchange of value with PayPal and the criptomonedas

Virtual currencies have created what we know as the Internet of Value (IoV) the reason lies in the possibilities of exchanging value in the form of virtual currency. A web page, a logo, a contract, the shares of a company, intellectual property, or any other asset with certain value are good examples of things that you can exchange with cryptocurrencies.

However, if we consider that the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, was created 10 years after PayPal, why we didn’t talk before about the Internet of Value? Long before than cryptocurrencies entered in action, you could already exchange thing of value using systems of payment such as PayPal. The main difference between making an operation with one system or another is that PayPal needs to make the payment through private networks (banks, credit cards, etc.), while cryptocurrency’s payment occurs without intermediaries.

It is an operation directly between the sender and the receiver, between the buyer and the seller.

What are the cryptocurrencies benefits compared to PayPal?

  • Lower transaction costs because there are no third parties or intermediaries.
  • Time reduction. The days that both parts last to give and receive the amount become minutes with the cryptocurrencies
  • Agents are not needed to perform the transactions, so it is given greater freedom.
  • They offer greater variety of options to choose the virtual currency that best suits your needs, as there are over 1300 in the market.
  • PayPal is not available in all countries. Think of Afghanistan or Haiti. What happens if we want to do a transaction for a person located in these countries? Due to the decentralized nature of the cryptocurrencies, as well as the possibility of making payments regardless of the place or the day, it is possible to perform them.
  • Users that perform an exchange of value with cryptocurrencies benefit from the possibility of registration and placement of information, having the possibility to track the money and providing more security and transparency in transactions.

PayPal focus on cryptocurrencies

"eBay could accept Bitcoin", "New patent of PayPal opens up the possibility to use Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies", "PayPal registered a patent to speed up transactions with cryptocurrencies", etc.

These are some news that reflect the evolution and the commitment of traditional electronic payments through the world of the blockchain. As CriptoNoticias points out: "Paypal, one of the most popular payment platforms in the world, introduced an application in the USPTO to register a tool that would expedite the confirmation of transactions with cryptocurrencies".

Virtual currencies have revolutionized the world of financial transactions. They have set up a payment technology to transfer economic value from person to person. Peer-2-Peer (P2P).