One of the main issues with the adoption of cryptocurrency is the competition with existing, centralized forms of fiat services. Paypal, one of the world’s leading services in that area, have announced plans that may take them out of the running.
The go-to method of eBay transacting recognize the threat of cryptocurrencies to their business, which could explain the sudden fee increase – perhaps the popular payment service is taking steps to amass funds in what may be the beginning of the end as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies become more widely used.
Whatever their reasoning, the changes are drastic – users in the United States will now be hit with a fee of $4.99 for sending funds internationally, plus an additional 2.9% of the transaction and an additional flat rate where the transaction is partially funded by an alternative method such as credit or debit cards.
This is a massive increase in their fees and will make small transactions and microtransactions completely unviable, making feeless cryptocurrecies a more attractive option. However, feeless cryptos are of course already are more cost-effective method of transferring funds, but aren’t used due to their low public profile.
Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that everyone in the world knows about, is now a cheaper method of transferring funds with fees of approximately $0.21 at the time of writing, it’s about to be more private as well.
PayPal Compromises On Privacy
Paypal are introducing new measures to prevent people with unverified addresses or even multiple addresses from using their service other than to withdraw to a linked bank account, effectively banning unverified users.
“We’re changing the balance functionality for your PayPal account depending on whether we have been able to verify identifying information that you provide to us. If we have not verified your identifying information, a balance in your PayPal account can generally only be held in your PayPal account and transferred to a linked bank account or debit card.”
Today’s announcement could be the beginning of a major shift in the usage of cryptocurrency as a mainstream form of peer-to-peer payment.
