Google Pay hires PayPal exec to achieve crypto payments goals

With intentions to grow into the crypto industry, Google has hired a former PayPal executive to help bolster Google Pay.

As part of a firm push into financial services, including cryptocurrency, Arnold Goldberg has been appointed to lead Google’s payments section.

“Crypto is something we pay a lot of attention to […] As user demand and merchant demand evolves, we’ll evolve with it,” Bill Ready, Google’s president of commerce, told Bloomberg.

The partnership streak by Google Pay

Google Pay is a mobile payment system created by Google that allows users to make in-app, internet, and contactless transactions on Android phones, tablets, and watches. It has not seen any revolutionary adoption since its launch worldwide, as anticipated.

Google will concentrate more on providing a “comprehensive digital wallet” that incorporates digital tickets, airline passes, even vaccine passports as part of the redesign, according to Ready.

For quite some time, Google has been trying to try its space in the crypto space, cooperating with many crypto startups until 2021. Ready stated that the organization intends to seek more crypto-related partnerships.

Google Pay announced a new partnership with major crypto exchange Gemini in April 2021. Users of Gemini could now buy Bitcoin with fiat currency using a debit or credit card through Google Pay.

In June, Google announced a partnership with Coinbase, allowing Coinbase customers to use their Coinbase Card to pay for goods and services using Google Pay. Users could also get cryptocurrency rebates of up to 4% on their purchases.

In October, a partnership between the crypto exchange Bakkt and Google allowed Bakkt users to use their Google Pay wallet to buy products and services using some of the exchange’s cryptocurrencies.

Paypal, on the other hand, appears to be one man down as it investigates the establishment of its own stablecoin. As TheCoinRise reported, Paypal revealed intentions to introduce “PayPal Coin” earlier this month, which developer Steve Moser discovered in the source code of the platform’s iPhone app.