PayPal forms a 6-membered advisory council for Blockchain, Crypto, and Digital Currencies 

The major U.S. payment processing giant PayPal has announced the formation of a team of industry professionals to serve as advisors on crypto, blockchain, and digital currencies.

On Tuesday, the company announced that six new members have been added to its Blockchain, Crypto, and Digital Currencies advisory council. 

A solid team

The new team by PayPal includes Fortress Investment Group co-CEO Peter Briger, Georgetown University Law Center professor Chris Brummer, former Commodity Futures Trading Commission chair Timothy Massad, Weizmann Institute of Science professor Shafi Goldwasser, MIT Digital Currency Initiative director Neha Narula, and MIT Sloan School of Management finance professor Antoinette Schoar.

From a corporate or regulatory standpoint, all six team members have extensive experience in the crypto and blockchain industry. Prior to the 2017 bull run, Briger reportedly advised Softbank Group founder Masayoshi Son to invest millions in Bitcoin (BTC). Before President Joe Biden formally nominated Rostin Behnam, Brummer was reported to be a candidate for CFTC chair. 

Massad, who was the CFTC chair from 2014 to 2017, suggested after stepping down that authorities should approve a BTC-focused ETF. Long before crypto, Goldwasser was part of a group of MIT researchers that presented the zero-knowledge proof as an encryption method.

Narula was in charge of a program to assist the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston to establish a digital currency focused on scaling for consumer use while she was involved with the MIT Digital Currency Initiative. 

The primary goal of the new advisory council would be to help the company with its current and planned products, as well as its goal of establishing a more inclusive digital financial ecosystem. 

“We believe it is crucial to engage with the world’s best leaders to better understand the industry’s most compelling opportunities and complex challenges,” senior vice president and general manager for Blockchain, Crypto, and Digital Currencies at PayPal, Jose Fernandez da Ponte said.

PayPal crypto expansion

In September, as TheCoinRise reported, PayPal hinted at launching a crypto app for crypto transaction facilitation.

In October 2020, the payments app announced that clients in the United States would be able to buy crypto using the platform, eventually expanding this to include crypto payments at millions of its international merchants. The company recently confirmed its plans on bringing its own stablecoin, PayPal Coin.