PayPal initiates crypto function in the UK

US payment giant PayPal has launched its cryptocurrency service in the United Kingdom.

From today, UK users will be able to buy, hold and sell digital currencies.

Paypal started its crypto operations in the US in October last year, and announced last month that it would soon do the same across the Atlantic.

Jose Fernandez da Ponte, head of crypto and blockchain at PayPal said the move was “doing really well in the US”.

UK users can now buy or sell Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Litecoin for as little as £1. Customers will also be able to track crypto prices in real-time and access crypto guides.

Relying on Paxos

PayPal is relying on Paxos – a New York-regulated digital currency company. Paxos represents a family of protocols for solving consensus in a network of unreliable or fallible processors.

Consensus is the process of agreeing on one result among a group of participants. This problem becomes difficult when the participants or their communications may experience failures.

CEO Dan Schulman recently confirmed the company would “continue to be pleased with the momentum it is seeing on crypto” and that it will be “adding incremental functionality into that”.

The official website says customers “can buy, sell and hold cryptocurrency through PayPal’s cryptocurrency service, but they can’t use it to send cryptocurrency. Purchases and sales of cryptocurrency aren’t reversible and cannot be changed”.