PayPal CEO Dan Schulman says now is the time for crypto payments to go mainstream.
Schulman claims he is a fan of all forms of digital currencies.
The use of cash has been declining since containment.
The era of widespread adoption of crypto payments is near according to PayPal CEO Dan Schulman.
As more consumers switch to cashless, Bitcoin Trader platform and digital currencies are becoming more and more popular.
The coronavirus pandemic is also triggering a sort of quantum leap in digitization, which could lead to a wider culture of species drops.
Paypal: crypto payments become mainstream
In an interview with New York Times columnist Andrew Ross-Sorkin at the ongoing Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, the CEO of PayPal said COVID-19 is accelerating the global adoption of crypto for digital payments.
According to Schulman, what would have taken three to five years is now happening in a much shorter period of time.
Commenting on the potential for cryptocurrencies and digital currencies to become mainstream, Schulman said:
I think if you can make a financial system, a new and modern technology that is faster, cheaper, more efficient, it will help bring more people into the system, for inclusion, to help reduce costs, to help improve the financial health of so many people […] So in the long run I’m very optimistic about digital currencies of all kinds.
Schulman’s comments come in the context of PayPal’s recent foray into the crypto space. In November, the PayPal chief said global adoption of digital currency was a matter of time, not a possible option.
According to a recent survey by Mizuho Securities, around 65% of PayPal customers are willing to use crypto for online payments. Indeed, more than a fifth of the 346 million active customers of the company have already purchased cryptocurrency on the platform.
The money is not dead yet
While the coronavirus-induced quantum digitization leap remains a high possibility, money is not yet dead, although its use shows signs of decline.
According to a 184-page European Central Bank (ECB) consumer payments report, cash remains the most popular form of payment in the region.
However, the report notes a significant shift in payment culture among consumers, driven largely by improvements in electronic payment channels and fears that tickets may be a means of spreading the coronavirus.
Government policies that encourage cashless transactions are also pushing more businesses to withdraw money.
With the main financial players in the euro area, such as the President of the ECB advocating a digital euro , the time for using cash at least in Europe could be running out. Indeed, several governments are looking for sovereign digital currencies to ward off competition from private stablecoins.