Announcements have started to go out to Paypal customers about their new Cryptocurrency service. Massive news! Well, kind of...

It's good news in one respect because it reflects the ever-growing acknowledgement of Crypto as an acceptable source of funding and a payment tool. It helps to bring Crypto, particularly Bitcoin, closer to a higher level of legitimacy.

Specifically, though it must be said that the service in every practical sense falls short of being really useful and here is why:

It appears to be non-transferable. In short, you can't send your Bitcoin (and they do also offer Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash) elsewhere.

Now I called Paypal this morning to confirm my suspicions (because it isn't even mentioned anywhere when you look to answer that question for yourself). Fighting my way through their automated switchboard was no mean feat. Whenever I said, "CRYPTOCURRENCY", the automaton on the other end blew a virtual fuse. But I did finally get to speak to a human being.

My question was simple: Do Paypal allow you to send your purchased Crypto - Bitcoin, for example - to an outside wallet? And the answer, as I had suspected from reading their announcement notes, was a resounding no. It must be said that it took a while to get to that resounding no after going around the houses somewhat.

This is what I suspected at first, and it does mean that the use of Paypal as a source for Crypto activities is limited. A simple example to explain this limitation would be that you buy Bitcoin through Paypal and want to send it to the XYZ Cryptocurrency exchange to do a bit of trading. No can do; you cannot send it as Crypto to any outside source.

It is also irritating to note that Paypal Business Accounts don't yet have access to the Crypto service.

So, in conclusion. Well done, Paypal, for helping to bring Cryptocurrency a little further into the light. But sadly, for me certainly and for most, this is not a helpful service at all.

The biggest problem to overcome still with Crypto (and this has been a problem for many for several years now) is still that the banking system put up walls and do their absolute best to stop anyone buying Crypto.

That isn't a problem for me and many like me these days as we circumnavigated that hurdle years ago. Still, it is the biggest issue for those wanting to get in and try some of the excellent Crypto opportunities out there.

I hope you find this email to be helpful.

All the best

John