PayPal Blunder The Best thing To Happen To Bitcoin & Crypto?
The headline states this is the best thing to happen to Bitcoin and crypto “ever” but I would refrain from going that far. The recent PayPal blunder is going to cause them some major pain but let’s face it, most regular people won’t remember or care, sadly, a few weeks from now.
The company, after helping to jump-start last year’s huge crypto bull run with its support for bitcoin and a handful of other cryptocurrencies, has scrapped a policy change that would have seen users fined by up to $2,500 for spreading what it called “misinformation,” claiming the update had gone out “in error.”
The reversal followed a flood of accusations from former management and regulators that branded the policy “insane,” “Owellian” and “the best thing that has happened for the adoption” of bitcoin and crypto.
“An AUP (acceptable use policy) notice recently went out in error that included incorrect information,” a PayPal spokesperson told reporters. “PayPal is not fining people for misinformation and this language was never intended to be inserted in our policy. Our teams are working to correct our policy pages. We’re sorry for the confusion this has caused.”
However, the company’s change of direction only happened after members of the so-called PayPal mafia, former PayPal president David Marcus, founding chief operations officer David Sacks and cofounder Elon Musk, publically criticized the policy while the bitcoin and crypto community pointed to it as evidence of the need for decentralized, digital payment alternatives.
“It’s hard for me to openly criticize a company I used to love and gave so much to,” Marcus, who now runs “bitcoin-focused” company Lightspark after failing to get Facebook’s digital currency off the ground, posted to Twitter. “But PayPal’s new AUP goes against everything I believe in. A private company now gets to decide to take your money if you say something they disagree with. Insanity.”
