Crytpocurrency Leader Joins PayPal Board of Directors

Wences Casares has become the ninth member of PayPal’s Board of Directors, the company has announced. Casares joins the team as part of PayPal’s Compensation Committee.

It’s a somewhat telling appointment, given Casares’ background. Having founded Argentina’s first ISP and major Latin American online brokerage Patagon, Casares went on to found and lead Xapo, a company specializing in technology that allows users to manage bitcoins. Thus he has a particularly strong background in digital currency, and given that his most recent venture had him lead a company dealing in a cryptocurrency, Casares could bring a unique vision to how PayPal can transform the money more broadly as PayPal endeavors to digitize the payments market around the world.

Commenting on his appointment to the Board in a statement, Casares said he is “honored to serve on the board of an iconic global company dedicated to driving the transformation of money on a global scale.” And as a leader possessing what PayPal CEO Dan Schulman called a “unique line of sight into the future of commerce”, Casares could also prove influential in helping PayPal with some of its more pioneering efforts, such as replacing the password with more advanced security technology such as that enabled via biometrics.