What is the difference between PayPal and Blockchain?

• Toshendra Kumar Sharma
• May 02, 2023

Let’s admit the fact that the world is slowly moving towards the era of economic revolution. With the intervention of technology and surge of new apps, we have seen some significant developments on the economic forum. In this blog I will be highlighting on two most popular developments in the field of money transaction, PayPal and Blockchain aided financial transactions.

When it comes to PayPal, then it’s a world-renowned platform for cross-border transactions. It is a transparent and trustworthy platform. However, when you do any exchange of money using PayPal, then you need to pay certain fees as it acts as an intermediary, you can also calculate this fee using a PayPal fee calculator. It is true in case of all the platforms that we are currently using for the exchange of money.

The Blockchain revolution-

Blockchain technology came into the picture in the year 2008 with Bitcoin. It was the first digital currency that set the foundation stone for many other currencies to flourish. Well, my objective behind this is not to drag you into the in-depth knowledge of cryptocurrencies or digital currencies; instead, I wish to bring forth the concept of blockchain which lays the foundation of cryptocurrencies exchange. Yes, blockchain formed the platform or the underlying technology on which digital currency transaction works. The versatility and adaptability of blockchain make it one of the most desirable and promising technologies of the future.

It won’t be wrong to claim that blockchain is much more than just financial transactions, it has the potency to make a major impact on various industries.

Now you might be wondering why are we making a comparison between the two. Well, to know more on this, read ahead.

Blockchain or PayPal-

Well, to be very honest blockchain and PayPal are entirely different entities at least for now. Whereas the PayPal is more regulated and controlled platform, Blockchain, on the other hand, happens to be the decentralized platform offering a completely transparent system.

I will now be highlighting how blockchain is different from PayPal, though both these portals are meant to ensure easy transactions, yet they have some basic differences in mode of operation making the two entirely different.

Blockchain, as we all know, is a distributed ledger having all the information stored in chronological order and is time stamped. It means that all these information or transactions are completely secure and immutable. Once entered it is unalterable and cannot be deleted. Blockchain makes use of cryptography which makes every information in the ledger safe and secure. This information is visible to all the people in the network. Most importantly, the entire functioning of blockchain is decentralized making the information distributed across the network.

Moving towards PayPal, it’s a platform for transactions across the globe and a well-recognized and trusted platform. But, with its stories of success, it also hails some blemishes. The failure stores of delayed payments, high fees, frozen accounts surround most of online transactions platform like PayPal. It has made blockchain based transaction medium gain momentum, thus, making blockchain a more powerful tool than PayPal.

Various other factors give blockchain an extra edge over PayPal:

High Fees–

One of the prominent reasons why Blockchain is becoming popular is that it cuts down the transactions fees which are high in case of PayPal or any other transaction platform. For example, PayPal charges 3 percent transaction fees, whereas when it comes to Bitcoin, then the amount comes up to be US$0.005.

Global approach–

Well, when it comes to the applicability then PayPal is not available in every nation, for example, nations like Afghanistan, Haiti, Iran, North Korea are some exceptions.

When it comes to blockchain then it comparatively global. It can be controlled on a very local level and cannot be shut down easily. This brings me to another differentiating factor, the decentralization.

Decentralized-

One of the key features which makes blockchain inevitable is its decentralization feature. It means that the information is distributed, which means in case the server goes down, you can still access the information. It creates a secures payment system where there will be no single point of failure which is not the case with the PayPal or any other centralized transaction platform.

Flat Fee-

The transactions fees are not variable when it comes to blockchain based transaction platform, whether you are sending $1 or $1 million, the transaction fees remains the same, however, when we shift our focus to PayPal, then transaction fees are three percent of the amount. It means if the amount is higher then the transaction fees will be higher in case of PayPal. Thus, you see, Blockchain gets an extra edge here.

Conclusion–

Well, although Blockchain poses series of advantages over the archaic payment system Paypal, at the same time we cannot ignore the fact that this technology is still at a very nascent stage and lacks control and regulation. Thus, we still have to see how it performs as a part of the mainstream economy, but for now, Blockahn defiantly has the upper hand over PayPal.