Recently PayPal brought on a new Vice President – Don Kingsborough.
Normally, this wouldn’t make for very interesting reading, but Kingsborough brings both the expertise and a vision that could radically altar the way we shop in the future.
If he can pull it off, we could see PayPal registers in every major retailer and perhaps your church!
Why Kingsborough
Kingsborough could easily be seen as an unlikely choice for PayPal. He has no experience with dotcom startups and in fact got his start by working at Atari and later founding a toy company, Worlds of Wonder. Before coming to PayPal, he had actually retired and was planning on staying that way. However, his largest tenure in the recent past was working at Safeway Stores, where he left to head up a credit-card company that he eventually sold to Safeway. It is in this latter move that carries such importance for PayPal. Kingsborough knows what retail environments need when it comes to changing or adding payment systems, and he has the networking in place at large retailers in the U.S.
What About Near-Field Communication?
Much ado has been made about near-field communications as the form of payment that will take over the retail experience. However, Kinsborough sees NFC as a “feature, not a solution“, as it simply replaces one item in your pocket with another. That may be a bit overstated, as NFC is expected to be incorporated into cell-phones which most carry with them anyway. However, he does make one point worth noting: NFC still transmits credit card information over a network, which is susceptible to identity theft. PayPal transactions would eliminate that risk as no banking information would be transmitted. It also has the advantage of reducing the hardware requirements on consumers, as anyone with computer access can set up a PayPal account. Also, customers could theoretically make the payments using their cell phones or other mobile devices if retail hardware is not in place.
Already in Place?
In case you have any doubts about PayPal’s ability to make this happen, this week they actually announced progress on this vision. According to a CNET article on Friday, PayPal has already started a preliminary run of the technology in 51 Home Depot stores in California, and expects to expand nationally and with more retailers throughout the year.
PayPal in Church
Assuming PayPal can achieve it’s vision, it opens up new possibilities for Church ministry. Currently it’s no small task to move toward electronic giving means in the Church. Many churches have opted to go with PayPal as a form of online payments through their website based on its simplicity and the fact that there is a high level of trust amongst people using it. Having an on-site PayPal device could make a lot of sense. For churches that have hesitated making the move toward electronic giving, PayPal registers could help ease the transition. This all assumes, of course, that PayPal finds a way to make the hardware affordable or even free. Considering the increased business it would bring, it only makes sense that they do this. As with anything, though, time will tell.
What do you think about PayPal in the Church?
[Image via Gigaom]
Adam says
Just because your bank info is not going over the internet does mean there are not other ways for people will find to steal your info if they want. With paypal all you would need is someones e-mail and password.
Also this will not work since there will not be an alternative for business that paypal will not let have an account. It is not as easy as you might think. http://www.forafriend.com an nonprofit 501C3 was denied a paypal account with no reason with no help from paypal on understand why or what could be done to get one.
Eric Dye says
This is really interesting, Adam. I think a post on this subject would be great. Care to share? Email me.