PayPal Ropes in Bitcoin Entrepreneur to Board of Directors
Payments giant PayPal has announced the appointment of founder and CEO of bitcoin startup Xapo, Wences Casares, to its board of directors.
In an official release today, PayPal described Casares as a “recognized next-generation payment and crypto-currency thought leader,” who will serve on PayPal’s Compensation Committee.
PayPal’s press release also references bitcoin explicitly, stating Casares’ Xapo as “a company that provides the tools people need to purchase bitcoins and then manage them through an easy-to-use online wallet, spend them through the Xapo Debit Card or store them in Xapo’s secure Vault.”
President and CEO of PayPal, Dan Schulman welcomed Casares to the PayPal Board of Directors. Although Schulman did not reference Bitcoin directly, he did provide some insight into the need for such Casares’ appointment and PayPal’s own outlook for the future of payments and remittance.
Wences’s unique line of sight into the future of commerce is ideally aligned with PayPal’s vision of transforming the management and movement of money for people around the globe.
Wences Casares has a storied past in developing technological and financial ventures. As the founder of Argentina’s first Internet Service Provider, he is also among the earliest evangelists of Bitcoin and has frequently spoken about the cryptocurrency in public forums.
Casares was the founder of Banco Lemon, a retail bank in Brazil as well as Lemon Wallet, a digital wallet firm acquired by LifeLock in 2013, before he founded Xapo.
The appointment of Wences Casares sees PayPal’s board of directors increase to 9 members in total.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
