PayPal Researching Payments in Space with PayPal Galactic
Do you plan on paying for that Martian ice cream, sir?
Here on Earth, services like Google Wallet give us an idea of how payments are progressing and where they're going. But what about in space? Have you ever considered how we'll pay for things if we were all to suddenly relocate to the moon? Probably not. Don't worry, though. You can probably just use PayPal.
The epayments service today announced the launch of a brand new initiative that aims to help make universal space payments a reality. Dubbed PayPal Galactic, the initiative is a collaboration with the SETI Institute and Space Tourism Society and others to identify and address the issues regarding transactions in space.
"As space tourism programs are opening space travel to 'the rest of us' this drives questions about the commercialization of space. We are launching PayPal Galactic, in conjunction with leaders in the scientific community, to increase public awareness of the important questions that need to be addressed," said David Marcus, PayPal's President.
"We may not answer these questions today or even this year, but one thing is clear, we won't be using cash in space. PayPal has already pushed payments into the Internet, onto phones and across terrestrial borders. We look forward to pushing payments from our world to the next, and beyond."
Speaking during a press conference today, PayPal said there would be many issues on the path to space payments including (but not limited to) sovereignty. currency, time zones, and customer service.
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Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.
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gm0n3y This may be a little premature, but is a fun concept. Of course even 50 years from now when this becomes necessary I'll still never use Paypal.Reply -
intelx @alchemista i 100% agree with you lmao, they still need to fix paypal on earth before they go to spaceReply -
Zagen30 "Speaking during a press conference today, PayPal said there would be many issues on the path to space payments including...customer service."Reply
How about they fix their current customer service issues?
I made a large Ebay purchase recently that was temporarily rescinded by PayPal's anti-fraud service. That wasn't the issue; I admit that a first-time purchaser dropping over $2000 looks suspicious, and I'd rather them be a little over-zealous if it means catching more fraudsters at an earlier and easier-to-resolve step. Being a first-time purchaser, I called up their customer service to get a better explanation of what would happen, and I spent close to 2 hours on hold before I finally was put through to someone (he was rather helpful, by the way). When I called a few days later to follow up on what was happening, I spent another hour+ on hold before I happened to check my account and saw that my money had finally showed up in my account and I could finally pay the seller. While I may have been calling at somewhat busy times (both were in the evening PT), guess what, you should staff your call centers with more people during high-volume hours. No one should have to wait on hold for over an hour. -
darkavenger123 What's the point?? People who can afford to pay to go to space will already have everything covered in their space tour package...they won't need to pay anything coz they have already paid for everything before getting onboard. Or you want to buy from e-Bay while in Space and ask them to deliver your package to the Moon?Reply -
w8gaming How to get a lot of energy output using the smallest amount of mass, cheaply and reliably is the main issue concerning space exploration. Maybe the earliest form of space exploration will mirror the earliest form of sea exploration, using solar panel and solar sail, which uses the cheapest energy source that is already available within the solar system. Using chemical fuel right now is like using sailing into sea with nothing but oars.Reply -
As said above this is premature but Paypal might just be the have secured themselves as the next richest corporation in the solar system with this. Too bad in 50 years I will be pushing 90 and a little too old for spaceflight. Maybe we will see technological singularity by then and I can just download my consciousness to Mars!Reply
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cryptz they must be going off of the leaked nsa documents proving that:Reply
1. aliens exist
2. they love them some ebay.