Paypal entered the game, the biggest beneficiary is actually Ethereum?

Editor's Note: This article comes fromVernacular Blockchain (ID: hellobtc), Author: Five Fireball Leader, reprinted by Odaily with authorization.

Editor's Note: This article comes from

Vernacular Blockchain (ID: hellobtc)

Vernacular Blockchain (ID: hellobtc)PayPal, Author: Five Fireball Leader, reprinted by Odaily with authorization.

A piece of news in the industry has been swiped in the past two days: the content is as follows:

"PayPal announced on Oct. 21 that it has joined the cryptocurrency marketplace, allowing customers to buy, sell and hold bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies using the U.S. digital payments company's online wallet, Reuters reported. BTC, BCH, LTC and ETH.

Customers will also be able to use cryptocurrencies to shop at the 26 million merchants on its network. "

Our market responded accordingly, BTC was inserted to 13,000, and ETH was also rushing to 400.

I originally thought that this is good news, everyone should know it. There is no need to write a separate article on this. But after thinking about it carefully, there are quite a lot of things in this seemingly simple news. In other words, how much content you can "interpret" is positively related to your understanding of this circle. The results will be more or less affected, so I take this article to systematically string together what I think of and what I see on the Internet.

On the whole, Paypal's support for digital currency may be a more important benefit than you think, and it may even be more beneficial than the ETF that has not yet passed.

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The first level of understanding: Paypal has a lot of users and a lot of traffic

Or it should be said that Alipay is actually the Chinese version of Paypal. After all, Paypal first existed before we followed suit.

How strong is Paypal - he has 350 million active accounts and processed $220 billion in online payments in the second quarter of this year.

Taking Australia as an example, there are basically two ways to pay for things that involve online payment, such as utility bills, Ebay or Amazon shopping, either credit cards or Paypal, and Paypal is generally considered to be a safer and more convenient way. Just like we basically use Alipay or WeChat in China.

So the simplest positive understanding is that Paypal supports cryptocurrencies, and suddenly opened the blockchain and digital currency to 350 million people. What are the current non-zero addresses of Bitcoin and ETH in the industry? BTC 30 million, ETH more than 40 million. Imagine that when 350 million people log in to their Paypal accounts and find that there is an additional digital currency option, even if only a small part of them do research out of curiosity, it will bring considerable new users to the industry.

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The second level of understanding: better transaction experience, as well as security and recognition

One is the buying experience. Still take Australia for example. Australia can use Coinbase, but it can only be bought, not sold. Several local trading platforms in Australia, in addition to supporting few currencies, the depth is generally not good, after all, most of the users are locals. Therefore, many players like me, after buying BTC, switch to domestic trading platforms such as Binance and Huobi to obtain more token options and trading depth.

two isSafetySo here comes the problem, if you want to cash out, in most cases you can only go back to the Australian local trading platform and cash out through mainstream currencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum (there is basically no USDT in Australia, because the trading platforms support direct trading of fiat currencies, USDT is of little significance), and it’s okay to have a small amount. If you want to cash out 100 BTC in your hand, it is estimated that the depth of the local trading platform can make a big hole.

If Paypal can buy and sell directly, according to my understanding, it should be able to open up the depth of the world's largest trading platforms such as Coinbase or Binance, which will be convenient for users and investors in countries such as Australia and Canada. Both the degree and the depth of transactions will be a qualitative leap.

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And recognition, if ETF represents a "reassurance" and an entry channel for institutional users, Paypal's support is a "reassurance" and an entry channel for retail investors.

From the perspective of insiders, there are indeed many trading platforms, and there is no shortage of channels to buy cryptocurrency, but from the perspective of outsiders, although there should not be too many people who have never heard of Bitcoin, but For most people, the impression of the blockchain industry may still be "informal", and these three words may prevent 80% or even 90% of users from visiting the "big casino" of the blockchain industry.

Now the formal international giants that everyone is familiar with say, it’s no problem for you to come to me to buy bitcoin, and I will give you a channel, does it feel completely different? People outside the circle can rest assured to buy what they want. Or to put it another way, imagine if one day domestic Alipay suddenly issued an official announcement saying that I have opened a bitcoin purchase service. Do you think a large number of "new leeks" will flood into China? These people don't know or care about centralization and decentralization, and they don't know what a private key is. What they want is security, formality and convenience. And these experiences are exactly what Paypal can provide, but Binance and even Coinbase cannot.

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The third level of understanding: Paypal's own transformation, banks, and future project parties in the circle

You must know that Paypal was actually against cryptocurrency at first. The former CEO once bombarded Bitcoin, saying it was the biggest scam in history. Maybe he really thinks that way, or maybe it's just his ass deciding his head. After all, Paypal has paid countless manpower, material resources and time costs to make it the most popular payment tool in the world today. You are a decentralized cryptocurrency without even a main body. After several years of development, you come here to kick the restaurant?

However, the wheel of history will keep turning forward, and the praying mantis blocking the way, regardless of its size, will be crushed sooner or later. If you can't beat him, it's better to cooperate with him. This is also what many people realized when they saw the name of Paypal in the list of members of the Libra association that Facebook will issue last year.

Just as Nokia, which was in full swing back then, had to embrace Android one day, Mercedes-Benz and BMW also had to set foot in the field of electric vehicles. Even if the transformation is slow, it is very likely to be a disaster in the long run. At that time, the leaders of the new ecology, such as Apple and Tesla, will have already passed away.

Paypal went from opposing cryptocurrencies, to joining the Libra Alliance, to withdrawing from Libra and supporting cryptocurrencies in just a few years. Maybe one day in the future, looking back at the history of cryptocurrencies, Paypal’s support for cryptocurrencies will become a super milestone event—representing the first year when cryptocurrencies are truly recognized by mainstream institutions and promoted to ordinary people.

And after the Paypal news came out, there was a Twitter noteworthy from Chamath Palihapitiya, chairman of Virgin Galactic:

Following the Paypal news, major banks are meeting to discuss how to support Bitcoin. It's no longer just an "option".

Well-known investor Wang Chuan said:

ETH is much higher than traditional finance. These innovations do not require permission on Ethereum, and I see new things every day. Looking back at traditional finance, I feel very backward.

The impact of Ethereum and Bitcoin on the world is very large. When the technology reaches that point, it will be very natural.”

In fact, the consensus of many big Vs in the circle is indeed that the news seems to be the most favorable for BTC, but in the long run, the bigger beneficiary is more likely to be ETH. After all, when cryptocurrencies begin to transform the banking and financial industries, the imagination brought by the smart contract platform is almost unlimited, far greater than a "digital gold" used for value preservation or investment.

As for the project side in the circle, I believe that the biggest benefit in the future will no longer be on Binance or Coinbase, but the biggest benefit will always be on Paypal, none of them!

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a little curious

The Paypal news is actually two, one is to "allow customers to use the online wallet of this American digital payment company to buy, sell and hold Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies."

The second is "From early 2021, PayPal customers will also be able to use cryptocurrencies to shop at 26 million merchants on its network."

There is no problem with the first one, but the second one is that many veterans in the foreign industry will definitely have the same doubts as me.