Bitcoin Global News (BGN)
April 20, 2018 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- When PayPal
effectively stopped
letting consumers use their accounts as a
go-between for Coinbase and all other crypto-exchanges, there was a
call in the space for a decentralized version of PayPal.
Despite this call, such a platform
still does not yet exist yet, despite numerous companies such
as Dash and more
recently, Themis, claiming that
they will provide something like it.
As of today, the situation has
arguably gotten worse. PayPal has changed their
fee structure for international transfers in a fairly
big way.
Reportedly, starting in May,
international transfers on PayPal will become significantly more
expensive than they are now.
No longer can we simply rely on
rates similar to those that we find on Google and in exchange
offices. The new rates will vary based on the countries that you
are involving in the transfer.
Specifically, PayPal plans for a
flat fee as the foundation for this new fee structure, with a
surcharge of 3% per transaction. To make matters worse for the
would-be PayPal user, there will also be a special fee based on the
currencies that you are using in the transfer.
All in all, this appears to be the
highest fee structure in existence next to those offered by
traditional banks, globally.
Logically, it would seem that
unless a large group of users do not care about this change or are
completely unaware of it for quite some time, PayPal may soon be in
trouble. This brings the question: what is Paypal’s
explanation for doing this?
If you’re interested in the full
answer, look no further than Paypal’s policy updates page, which is
linked to this article.
In short, most of what has been
reported seems to be true.
Some countries will have
significantly higher fees although, what is more striking is the
fact that PayPal will effectively charge more if the money is sent
to a country that is not the United States or Canada or the regions
that it terms “Northern Europe, Europe I, and Europe
II.”
In addition to this, it is
interesting that a 4.99 USD base fee, along with higher added fees,
are charged if the countries fall outside of those listed in
Paypal’s policy update.
Seemingly, this can only mean good
news for the crypto space, especially in the case of emerging
markets, which would fall outside of Paypal’s prepared list
for this policy change. The question that remains is:
how can we, as crypto insiders, best inform the global populace
about this issue?
One could argue that this all boils
down to trust. If we want PayPal users to change services then we,
as an industry, need to provide an alternative that these users can
easily feel comfortable with. The exact way in which this can be
done remains to be seen, but it could be just over the
horizon.
By: BGN Editorial Staff