PayPal is hiring crypto and blockchain experts amid rumors that the global payment platform will enable direct cryptocurrency purchases for its 305 million users. The job descriptions they’re hiring for are publicly available on the company’s own job board.
The first listing of note is for a job titled “Technical Lead – Crypto Engineer.” The listing describes that this person will be responsible for “new initiatives for PayPal global with a focus on agility, time-to-market and innovation. The role includes designing, developing and maintaining key crypto products/features targeted towards availability, performance and scalability of PayPal services.”
The second listing worth mentioning is for a blockchain research engineer to work within the company’s research group, “a newly formed group within the Strategic Technology Enablement team chartered with establishing expertise and opinions on emerging blockchain technologies and their potential uses within PayPal.”
These job listings remain live while the crypto community is buzzing over today’s collection of recent rumors that PayPal will formally throw its hat into the cryptocurrency ring. The job requirements call for a number of skills that overlap with Bitcoin development, like experience with C++, asymmetric cryptography and cryptographic libraries.
In its latest 10-K filing, PayPal lists potential rapid developments in blockchain and virtual currencies as a possible risk factor that may negatively impact the company. It’s possible that the company decided to preemptively strike against these potential risks.