EBay/PayPal's Braintree Adds Bitcoin Acceptance, Expands One Touch

Braintree, a payment technology business owned by eBay and PayPal, has opened up Bitcoin acceptance to its merchant clients, including airbnb, GitHub, Uber and LivingSocial. 

"This is PayPal's first foray into Bitcoin through the Braintree platform," said Bill Ready, CEO of Braintree during the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco on Sept. 8.

Braintree also announced that it would be making its One Touch buying experience with PayPal generally available. The service allows consumers to enter their payment credentials only once; during subsequent purchases consumers can pay with one-click at any participating merchant.

While the company isn't ready to announce any particular merchant who would be accepting Bitcoin, Ready said, "Both one-touch mobile payments as well as Bitcoin is going to be of high interest to a lot of merchants in the coming months."

Braintree is working with Coinbase, a popular Bitcoin merchant services and consumer wallet provider, to facilitate Bitcoin acceptance. The Coinbase wallet will also be presented to consumers wanting to purchase using the One Touch application.

The eBay unit added Bitcoin because reputable providers are working out the digital currency's regulatory issues and merchants see it as a way to address the pain points in accepting payments, Ready said.