Crypto-Currencies: PayPal Rewards Employees with Tokens
FACTS
- The e-payment specialist PayPal introduces an internal Blockchain-based incentive for rewarding employees: tokens in exchange for contributing ideas and sending them through a dedicated platform for centralising innovative developments.
- This new reward platform has been designed by PayPal’s innovation lab in San José. It took 6 months to complete.
- The in-house tokens hold no value outside of PayPal’s premises. They can be traded among employees, providing them with access to more than 100 PayPal-related “experiences”: coffee with the company’s CFO, martial arts with the CEO, etc.
CHALLENGES
- Additional focus on the Blockchain. Given their volatility, virtual currencies have long been overlooked by PayPal. Yet, they still make progress to this day and catch public attention. PayPal now seems to be paying more attention to these assets, through dedicated work in their innovation labs (in San José, Scottsdale, Singapore, Bangalore and Chennai).
- This interest echoes customer loyalty and retention-related opportunities identified by companies. Rewards systems are viewed as ways to build bridges between employees and executives. PayPal also intends to boost the group’s productivity while improving their employee’s quality of life.
- In August 2016, PayPal filed a patent on a faster crypto-assets-based transactional system.
MARKET PERSPECTIVE
- As they unveil another means to reward employees, PayPal’s approach can be compared to choices made by the Spanish group BBVA. This bank implemented a similar mechanism via BBVA Campus Wallet in Spain and Argentina, to reward their employees’ constructive commitment.
- In light of these two experiments, virtual tokens are gaining momentum as tools for incentivising staff members in-house. This also further highlights a gap between Blockchain-based assets and fiat currencies. Long-standing banking institutions like BBVA and Santander seem to be making room for Blockchains and virtual currencies, but they are not always authorised to hold crypto-currencies.