PayPal opens its doors (slightly) to bitcoin payments

PAYPAL IS ALLOWING certain retailers to accept bitcoin as a form of payment for digital goods via its payments hub.

The company has partnered with bitcoin payment processors BitPay, Coinbase and GoCoin, allow merchants to accept the cryptocurrency as payment for digital goods like games and music.

However, the payments won’t be processed by PayPal itself, and will only be available in North America for now.

In a blog post announcing the move, the company’s senior director of corporate strategy Scott Ellison said that the change is a gradual one.

To be clear, today’s news does not mean that PayPal has added Bitcoin as a currency in our digital wallet or that Bitcoin payments will be processed on our secure payments platform. PayPal has always embraced innovation, but always in ways that make payments safer and more reliable for our customers. Our approach to Bitcoin is no different. That’s why we’re proceeding gradually, supporting Bitcoin in some ways today and holding off on other ways until we see how things develop.

The company also said that it was working with virtual currency exchanges and administrators to secure the appropriate licences and ensure anti-money laundering procedures are in place

Recently, the company announced its Braintree unit, which will allow mobile payments in apps, would also include bitcoin payments as well.

Currently, one bitcoin is worth €333.

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