PayPal forms cryptocurrency and blockchain advisory board

Major U.S.-based payment processor PayPal has assembled a team of industry experts to serve as advisors on cryptocurrencies, blockchain and digital currencies.

In a statement Tuesday, PayPal said the six members of its Blockchain, Crypto and Digital Currency Advisory Council will help support its current and future products, as well as create a more inclusive digital financial ecosystem. The goal. Fortress Investment Group Co-CEO Peter Briger, Georgetown University Law Center Professor Chris Brummer, Weizmann Institute of Science Professor Shafi Goldwasser, Former US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Timothy Massad, MIT Sloan School of Management Finance professor Antoinette Schoar, and Neha Narula, head of the MIT Digital Currency Initiative, will join PayPal's initiative.

Jose Fernandez da Ponte, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Blockchain, Crypto and Digital Currency at PayPal, said: "We believe that engaging with the world's best leaders to better understand the industry's most attractive opportunities and complexities The challenge is crucial."

All six advisors have years of experience in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space, either from a commercial or regulatory perspective. Briger reportedly advised SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son to invest millions in bitcoin ahead of the 2017 bitcoin bull run. Goldwasser was part of a group of researchers at MIT that proposed zero-knowledge proofs as an encryption scheme long before cryptocurrencies existed.

While at the MIT Digital Currency Initiative, Narula was responsible for helping the Boston Fed build a digital currency designed to expand consumer use. According to reports, Brummer was one of the candidates for CFTC chairman before President Joe Biden formally nominated Rostin Behnam. Massad, who served as CFTC chairman from 2014 to 2017, proposed after his departure that regulators should approve exchange-traded funds that offer exposure to bitcoin.

It is unclear whether the advisory group aims to expand PayPal's business in the field of cryptocurrency and blockchain. In October 2020, the payment app announced that it would allow users in the United States to purchase cryptocurrencies through the platform, and later expanded the service to include crypto payments at its millions of merchants around the world. The company is reportedly planning to launch its own stablecoin, PayPal Coin.

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