...The novel project will investigate the best options for cosmic currency in a cash-free interplanetary society. It also seeks to study the potential changes in store for banks and financial regulations as humanity increasingly expands its activities in space....MOREFrom Space.com:
Building PayPal Galactic for Off-World Payments Will Take Years
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Developing a cosmic cash system to meet the needs of future space tourists and interplanetary settlers is a complicated task that will take several years to complete, leaders of the new project say.
On Thursday (June 27), online-payment company PayPal and the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute unveiled PayPal Galactic, an initiative that aims to figure out the best way to process financial transactions beyond Earth.
This is much easier said than done, with many big questions demanding attention right off the bat, officials said.
"What will be our standard currency up there? How will the banking system need to adapt?" PayPal president David Marcus said here at the SETI Institute during the project's unveiling on Thursday. "How will risk and fraud management evolve? IP address from space? That's not a country for us; how are we going to deal with that?"
It's also unclear at the moment how off-world banking transactions will be regulated, and which bodies here on Earth would do the regulating, Marcus added, stressing that such issues will take a while to work out.
"We will focus on answering those questions and inviting everyone around the table who wants to participate — scientists and the industry as well," Marcus said. "We're really, really looking forward to having the conversation for the next couple of years."...MORE
