PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said on Thursday that he believes PayPal will play an important role in the use of the central bank’s digital cash (CBDC).
In the company’s investor day conference call, Shulman said that PayPal is preparing to become “the digital wallet of global CBDC”.
PayPal’s latest encryption product roadmap includes PayPal becoming a CBDC platform. Schulman said he thought PayPal’s digital wallet would be the way for the central bank to distribute tokens to consumers.
“PayPal is the perfect complement for the central bank and the government to distribute those CBDC in a modern way, so that more people can use the digital economy. We think this is the key area of this new business unit we have established.”
However, some central banks still have a long way to go before issuing CBDC. Christine Lagarde, president of the European central bank, said that the digital euro may take several years to complete, while the federal reserve is still at the stage of possible digital dollar research. Meanwhile, Schulman said PayPal is looking to add utilities to existing assets.
PayPal announced its product roadmap in the financial report conference call for the fourth quarter of 2020 earlier this month. In the conference call, Shulman called the current financial system “outdated”, which prompted PayPal to establish a new department focusing on blockchain and digital economy. Shulman reiterated these views in today’s investor conference call.
- PayPal CEO Dan Schulman reiterated PayPal’s intention to study cryptocurrencies more deeply in today’s investor conference call.
- PayPal’s wallet will be positioned as “the digital wallet of global CBDC”.
- Schulman’s comments also pointed out that it may be involved in the use of tokens and smart contracts.
