PayPal Says Goodbye to Epik, Citing Legal Crypto Issues


Following news that PayPal would allow its customers to pay for goods and services with crypto assets like bitcoin, the digital payments firm has announced that it is ending its relationship with a venture known as Epik due to alleged risks and other issues stemming from the company’s crypto department.

PayPal Says Adios to Epik

Typically, the company works with PayPal by registering web domains and hosting the enterprise’s transactions, though these transactions will no longer be processed for PayPal. Robert Davis – the SVP of strategy and communication for Epik – explained in an open letter:

I wanted to let you know that I absolutely loved PayPal as a company. In fact, I saw you as a champion for those who were struggling in society that could not obtain credit cards or easily open a bank account for that matter. PayPal has bene a critical resource for hundreds of millions of people around the world and existed as another shining example of American innovation to push the boundaries for economic empowerment.

PayPal explained in a separate statement that the company’s executives were not willing to take chances with Epik’s new cryptocurrency Master Bucks, which can be purchased and converted into USD. It can also be used to buy web domain services. There are reported legal questions floating around the use of Master Bucks, which is why PayPal seems to be stepping away.

Allegedly, the digital payment firm tried to sort some of the problems surrounding the cryptocurrency out a month ago, though the company has not managed to make any headway.

Are Conservatives Being Shut Out?

However, Epik claims that there are no problems surrounding its new cryptocurrency and that the decision for PayPal to step away stems from a hidden political agenda. Davis explains in his letter:

PayPal’s recent decisions have been so horrifying to directly observe and witness, as you have taken unthinkable actions that are far beyond any past precedent I’ve seen for abuse of power and overreach by a de factor monopoly. It appears that in a direct effort to silence conservative voices, PayPal has terminated our payment services – just two weeks before a presidential election. While the concept of technology firms targeting conservative-owned companies to demonetize and deindex users is not unknown to us, the degree of tyranny and oppression that this particular action represents cannot go unaddressed by the American people.

His letter makes no mention of Master Bucks, and instead implies that the company is trying to shut out conservative individuals and companies alike. If this is true, it would be the same pattern that’s potentially being followed by other major tech companies such as Twitter, which has a history of censoring conservative points of view and is now taking flack for censoring a New York Post story casting new light on a scandal involving Hunter Biden – the son of democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

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