PayPal Forms 'Crypto, Blockchain and Digital Currencies Advisory Council'

Fintech giant Paypal, in its recent press release, introduced its first advisory board on blockchain, crypto and digital currencies. The board includes leading experts in the fields of distributed technology, as well as specialists in economic and regulatory understanding related to blockchain and crypto. But before you started, you knew you could buy Bitcoin with PayPal? No? Then read our guide!

The new PayPal advice

The payment processing giant said that in order to provide better digital financial services in the future, it has acquired "the best world leaders" in order to better understand the opportunities and challenges this field presents. 

In addition to the same PayPal stated:

“To support not only our current and future products in space, but our broader mission to lead the way towards a more accessible, efficient and inclusive digital financial system, we have established an interdisciplinary advisory council on Blockchain, Crypto and digital currencies ( BCDC) made up of some of the world's leading experts in cryptography, distributed technology, regulation, economics and capital markets. "

The six members who make up the advisory board include Peter L. Briger, Jr. - Co-CEO of the Fortress Investment Group; Chris Brummer - Faculty Director, Institute of International Economic Law; Dr. Shafi Goldwasser - Turing Award winner and director of the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, UC Berkeley.

Joining them the team also has Timothy Massad - former president of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission from 2014-2017; Dr. Neha Narula - director, MIT Digital Currency Initiative; as well as Antoinette Schoar - Stewart C. Myers-Horn Family Professor of Finance and Entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan School of Management.

Whether the board will be directly responsible for expanding PayPal's crypto crusade is uncertain, as is what the fintech giant will take on crypto matters next.

Last year, the company allowed its clients to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies from their accounts, as well as transact through its 26 million merchants.

The PayPal slip

In the midst of their crypto expansion, PayPal recently took a hit in the stock market when its shares plummeted more than 25% last week. The mixed earnings it suffered in the final quarter of 2021 ended up disappointing investors.

This has also led many analysts to cut their predictions for PayPal's price targets by up to 40%. If their crypto move pays off, then the same goals could be revised, provided their advice proves successful.