Reports emerged this week that Google will allow its users to store cryptocurrency on digital cards, bringing hyperbitcoinisation one step closer to reality.
Being one of the largest and most popular search engine in the world, the corporation’s pivot into the crypto world is another signal compounding a trend of global adoption.
Google appointed Arnold Goldberg to lead its payments section, who was previously the VP of Merchant Product and Technology at Paypal. The firm has some ties to crypto, but nothing official until recently. Alphabet – Google’s parent company – forked out $1 billion in the futures exchange CME, an institutional-grade trading platform for bitcoin futures contracts.
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Google to Accept Crypto on Digital Cards
Coinbase and BitPay have partnered with the firm to offer users the ability to use digital cards that support bitcoin and fiat money. When Google will start accepting bitcoin as payment is yet to be announced, but the train is now in motion.
According to a Bloomberg story, Google aims to obtain substantial market share in the payments industry, hence the custodian and spending capabilities that it will support.
VP of commerce at Google Bill Ready said:
Crypto is something we pay a lot of attention to. We’ll develop with the user and merchant demand as it changes.
While the corporate giant doesn’t accept bitcoin for transaction, the executive told Bloomberg that the team is looking into cooperation prospects.
Google’s crypto integrations allow customers to keep BTC in their cards while spending fiat currency. This arrangement wouldn’t use Bitcoin as a medium of exchange, but rather allows users to spend Bitcoin holdings, if they so choose.
The announcement came after PayPal Arnold Goldberg was appointed to lead the company’s payments segment. Google aims to be a “connective tissue” for the whole consumer finance market, according to Ready.
“We’re not a bank,” Ready told Bloomberg.
We have no interest in becoming a bank. At times, certain previous endeavours would accidentally venture into those realms.
Google cards will hold Bitcoin and various cryptocurrencies.
Steady Adoption
Google’s move to accept Bitcoin is a major step in global crypto adoption – that much is clear. Regardless of whether the company states that it is not competing with the banking sector, the reality is that Google Cards will feature custodian and spending capabilities, meeting rudimentary banking needs for everyday use.
However, users will have to keep a watchful eye on the relationship between regulators and bitcoin custodians, lest they be obliged into a situation plastered with red tape, leaving users unable to use their crypto freely.
Google Bitcoin adoption comes at a time of skyrocketing inflationary pressures all over the world. The self-inflicted wounds were partly exacerbated by systematic gross incompetence in handling the two-year long health crisis.
Bitcoin is up 435% since the start of the health crisis in January 2020.
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