PYUSD 101 I Mehak Jethmalani

[Music] Um, hey everyone. I'm Mahek. Uh, I work here at PayPal for PYUSC leading ecosystem development and Devril. Uh, I'm so excited to be here and chat with all of you. Uh, thank you so much for taking the time to join and for participating in this amazing community and hackathon.

Um, at any point in the presentation, feel free to just uh raise your hand uh or or unmute and ask me questions and I'll be happy to answer them. Um, I don't mean to take up all of this time presenting content and boring everybody here. Uh, I do want to leave a large chunk of the time we have for questions and just anything else you'd like to discuss. So, yeah, let's just make this as interactive as possible and let's get right into it. Okay, just give me a second while I share my screen.

Okay, are you all looking at my screen? Okay, awesome. So um we're here to talk about PYUSD and um how all of you building here at ETH Global can use PYUSD. But before we get into that, let's talk a little bit about how PayPal really got into um the crypto world and and you know what our vision and mission is behind all the crypto products and of course our stable coin. So traditional payments as many of you know can be painful.

They take days to settle. There are a bunch of intermediary fees. They require bank accounts which sounds simple for uh a lot of folks. Uh but there are hundreds and thousands and millions of undocumented underbanked uh regions. um and and the citizens and and people in those regions struggle to get access to basic financial services and uh unfortunately there's not much we can do to help them and a lack of identity and a lack of um the right kind of documentation can really uh disable folks and of course it's constrained by backing hours for any of you who may have used AC and wire transfers might know that uh these can be constrained by banking arts.

Of course, I know that we're a very global audience and different regions have very different requirements and uh even for folks who may use PayPal and Menmo, you might be like, hey, but you know, we get instantaneous transfers. Uh and while that is true and that those are brilliant experiences that different organizations and sometimes even governments have put in place but in the back end there is a lot of um um a lot of intermediaries fees and uh other processes involved which makes the process extremely difficult and long even though on the face of it and on the UI of it it might be easy for you. So with all of these in mind and thinking about how we as PayPal want to bring uh together the next generation of payments, we started thinking about what is the next place for us to create innovation in the payment space and in the fintex space. And um this is a really great quote uh from uh uh the former Federal Reserve chairman and he said that the only useful thing banks have invented in the last 20 years is the ATM. Uh and this is in the United States of course and and and that is pretty interesting.

So with that let's look at some statistics on what innovation has looked like in the fintech space. So 1872 was when the first fire transfer was completed. 1950 was when the first credit card was introduced, which is cool. Uh 1972 is when the first AC network went live and 1977 uh was when the corresponding um XP banking swift uh process uh came into being. And so this is 50 plus years of old technologies which still form like the high level um underlying payments um foundation today in the United States.

So, oops. Um, let me make sure that all of you can hear and see this video. Just feel free to unmute and let me know if you can't see the video. But, uh, here's just a video summarizing some of the things I was saying. And hopefully that'll help you all get a sense of what we were thinking about.

So yeah, with that uh we'd like to introduce PYUSD which was our form of the next generation of payments. So we've spoken a bunch about traditional payments and how there is a strong need for innovation and this is how we see the next generation of payments. the decentralized generation of payments uh where peer-to-peer networks allow for payments to settle without a central intermediary with trust with speed and with efficiency. So, um what are stable coins? And maybe this is something that many of you already know, but just to make sure we we are are being inclusive.

Uh I'd like to quickly just run by this definition of a stable coin is basically like any other cryptocurrency except as the name suggests its value is pegged or tied to a currency or a stable commodity. So the PYUSD stable coin is pegged one is to1 to the US dollar. So the next generations of payments is fast, it's interoperable, it's inclusive and it's 24 by7. So PayPal has been in the financial industry for 20 plus years years now. And 20 years ago when this company came into being um we were the first ones to take payments from offline to online.

And today when we are launching crypto products and when we are uh creating onchain activity and when we launched our own stable coin we were able to bring payments from online to onchain and this is how we look at the next generation of payments. So introducing PYUSD again a quick snapshot of what this looks like in the PayPal app if uh any of you have access to that. Um, PYUSD is also accessible through most major eligible exchanges uh across the globe. So, feel free to check that out. Like I said, peg one is to1 to the US dollar.

Here are some uh very unique features uh that differentiate PayPal. It is 100% backed by USD reserves. Uh it's low cost 24 by7 interoperable and fast by USD's multi-chain. So, uh that allows it to be interoperable. It also allows it to benefit from the different protocol uh features that make it low cost, make it fast, make it efficient depending on which chain you are on.

Uh it's programmable and multi-chain. Uh we started on Ethereum uh and we're now live on three other chains including arbitrum and we hope to see all of you utilize that. Um it's fully regulated and approved by the New York DFS. So uh you might think that oh by USD is only on four chains. uh but that's because we work uh very closely with our regulators to ensure that we are bringing to you a very safe regulated product and so that all your um your funds and and your efforts are always secure and then you can buy redeem and transfer pydeno and um of course this comes with the added benefit of PayPal's trust and reliability that includes things like AML transaction monitoring.

So, another slide here to show you how we think PYUSD is superior to other payments rails and you can see the cost per transaction and how it differs between different funding instruments and which is why we're so excited to introduce PYUSD uh to all our consumers. So, with that um let's talk a little bit more about today's hackathon. Um, so all of you may have already seen the three bounties that we have. If you haven't, please take a look at it. Uh, but we've tried to keep these bounties very open-ended and and flexible and focused on innovation because when we come to these kinds of events and when we interact with the developer and build a community, we are here to learn from you.

We know that we're new in the space and we know that uh there is so much more we can do and there's so much we can learn. uh and you know we have access to all these amazing communities and all the amazing minds uh that come to build with us at these kinds of events and hackathons. So it is very important to us to learn from you to see the amazing ideas that you can build and integrate PYUSD with. Um of course PYUSD being a PayPal stable coin was built with the uh intention to enable payments and be a payments focused stable coin. uh but we also of course want to look at different kinds of consumer experiences and we want to see what innovative but responsible uh use cases you would like to build PYUSD with.

So, if you scan this QR code, uh it should take you to a bunch of resources um that will allow you to access uh and to allow you to access more PYUSD related content and give you the tools necessary for you to build with PYUSD. So, we really want to, like I said, learn from you, hear your ideas, your feedback, see your bills, and we're super super excited to see the outcome of this hackathon. And um yeah, this slide is a quick gist also on all the other things PayPal is doing in the crypto industry. And uh these are just some of the products that we've launched in the past year. So, Zoom payments as you know PayPal uh and PYUSD st the stable coin is a prominent uh application for remittances.

So, remittances and crossber transactions are one of the most used use cases and the most prominent use cases for stable coins. And of course, we have our own tool zoom and we want to make sure that uh PYUSD can help our Zoom consumers uh who are sending remittances to their loved ones. And we also had made it uh the transaction cost free to make sure that we can further push that um that effort. Then B2B payments you know uh PYUSD can greatly increase business cash flows and uh allow for faster and more efficient transaction between businesses whether they're large enterprises or small to medium businesses and we are really excited about that business use case. Then you have crypto payouts.

Uh for any of you who are familiar with Hyperwallet or uh payouts in general for businesses especially uh PYUSD is a great uh uh great funding instrument for that as well. And then the uh very exciting one uh in the United States is the PYUSD rewards product which uh if you are holding you can earn 4% uh on on the PYUSD in your PayPal wallet. So yeah, um I really hope that this gives you a good idea on all the things we're doing with PYUSD and our other crypto products here at PayPal. Um of course there might be a lot of questions and you might have a lot of ideas and we're so excited to hear all of those. So you can reach out to me, you can reach out to us uh on the Discord or Telegram channels.

Uh and um this here is uh QR codes that help you reach the Google Cloud Faucet uh where PYUSD is supported across uh a bunch of chains. And um we hope that that this these test net tokens will help you build in this hackathon as well. And with that, I come to the end of my spiel. Um let me take a moment here to see if there were any questions. I'm sorry I wasn't able to see the screen.

Um I see that there are a bunch of notes in the chat so I will just go through them right now. Um no. Okay. Looks like there were some issues with her connection. I'm going to try to get her back into the chat.

Oh, there you go.

Yeah, it seems I got kicked out. So, uh it seems like my video has been blocked. It says that um your you cannot start your video because the host has stopped it. Uh

okay. Just just give me one sec. Just give me now. I can I just Yeah, there you go. You should be able to redo it now.

I just wanted to make sure that's only you on screen and not everybody else. So, you should be able to do it again.

Uh um Okay. Yep, I'm back. Sorry about that. Uh folks. Okay.

So, Pascal, it seems like I've lost access to the chat or maybe it's refreshed for me because earlier I could see like 18 plus messages and now it's blank.

Okay, I I can I can read them up. I think the first one was actually from Anon 2. So, uh, Annotto, if you just want to unmute yourself and just ask a question. I think that's probably the easiest one. And you were the first to post, too.

Yeah. Thanks. Uh, can you hear me?

Yes.

Yeah. All right. Uh, yeah. So, I have a question. And, um, I mean, it's great.

Your presentation started with how it's enabling payments in regions where people don't have access. And my first contact with Pi USD is this is not available in your region. So I thought it was a bit um is there anything I can still do for this hackathon with some kind of sandbox and test net tokens?

Yes, absolutely. Uh thank you for asking that question and could you tell me which which region you are trying from?

Yes, I'm in Europe. I'm in Slovenia.

Gotcha. Uh sorry about that experience. Uh I know we we are currently very focused on making sure that you know our geo expansion plans come to fruition and uh regions like yours get access very soon through the PayPal app as well. But um PY USD should be available across other um exchanges that you might want to use. So if you can check that uh and let me know if that that works out for you.

And nevertheless, the testn net uh QR codes that I shared or uh the the paxos test net link that you might also find in the link tree uh will be available to you and should be available to you. So you should be able to use that to build for this hackathon. Uh, actually I was I wanted to have an integration with with actual PayPal, not just using the ERC20 token, but actually have something with a with a PayPal account and like being able to access DeFi protocols just with a PayPal account. That's the idea I had originally,

right? Um, unfortunately because of the um, you know, regional regulatory requirements, I'm sorry, I don't think that would be possible right now. But if you would still like to use uh the ERC20 token uh which is the stable coin um that would be great as well.

All right. Thanks.

Thank you.

Yeah, I wrote down all the questions that were asked uh so you can go over them in the chat.

Awesome. Uh okay, I see the questions here. Thank you so much, Pascal. So um are there any examples of already built projects using PYUSD? Yes, absolutely.

Thank you so much for that question. So uh if you scan the QR code um that I shared earlier, it will take you to a link tree where there are a number of blogs and documentation. In there you will see uh recaps of earlier hackathons uh and and you can see uh you know descriptions and and summaries on what all those projects built and what use cases they used. We also have a bunch of other blogs and technical documentation showcasing sample codes and uh sample use cases. So hopefully that helps you.

If you can't find it, feel free to post a question. Um and I'll try my best to make sure you get access to those. Um but yeah, uh feel free to check those out. You can also look at uh the PayPal devx handle where we frequently post about uh winners from our bounty challenges and hackathons and we usually uh tag those projects so you can also access them through there if that's easier. Okay.

Um are there any specific build or ideas you guys are looking to see uh as built using PayPal USD? I would love to share our idea and get your thoughts if we have time. Uh yeah, I mean thank you for that question. So, like I said, PYUSD uh is designed keeping payments in mind. And when we uh of course what Ethereum we use the ERC20 contract but when we're thinking about EIP when we're thinking about um you know PYUSD on um other protocols when you think like if you look at our newly launched Stella or if you think at look at Solana and we think about like token extensions or any specific features or programmability that we want to enable.

We think about how we can create easier efficient payments. uh and that is of course you know core to our business core to PayPal's uh uh um core vision and uh I would say that we would look for something similar to that. So when you think of use cases, you can think of uh peer-to-peer networks, you can think of crossber transactions, you can think of BT B2B use cases, you can also think of uh things that are not related to payments though, which I've seen a bunch like I've seen folks use PYUSD as a collateralized token for uh you know microloans in underserved regions. I've seen pyusd be used uh in the form of rappers uh sorry rappers of pyusd be used to uh create like interoperable uh applications. I've also seen pyusd be used in uh gas saving um projects.

So the world is your oyster. All we want to make sure is that uh you use PYUSD responsibly and we encourage you to uh ensure that PYUSD is not used for any um wrong services or intentions. Okay. Uh oops. Seems like I missed a question.

What secures the stable coin? Is there a way for anyone to deposit collateral and mint PYUSD? So, um if you want to learn more about the exact uh uh reserves, reserve details uh around what backs PYUSD, I would encourage you to read our documentation just so that I make sure I don't say anything wrong here. But it is 100% backed by um cash equivalent reserves. Uh and it is minted by Paxus which is a regulate which is regulated by the New York DFS.

Um so no not anyone can deposit collateral and mint PYUSD. It is only issued by our issuer Paxos. Okay. I am short of PYUSD faucets. Google Cloud provides only 100 PDA for an account.

Is there any way to get more? Um yeah I mean I I apologize uh if you felt that that's not enough. That is really great feedback. Uh I will definitely take that back to our team and see how we can improve on that. For now, I would encourage you uh to either wait till the next day or maybe also try to access the Paxos faucet uh as as a secondary faucet to get additional test tokens.

Uh the last question, I'm looking at building a stable coin super pool orbital. I'm considering using PYUSD as one of the tokens. Is this something you would consider for a price? Um, yes, absolutely. So, of course, we would really like to see PYUSD be the primary token.

Uh, but as long as you're using PYUSD towards uh the actual use case and you can show that PYUSD is pivotal to your application, uh, it should be considered. Okay. Uh, I have some more questions here. Uh and Pascal keep me in check on time. Uh I don't want to go over by too much but okay question here is I'm working with the Aale project who's a top sponsor.

We are using them for crosschain payments. We do like to have PYG part of the ecosystem. Is this something you could support? Um yeah I I think I am in touch with someone from your team already. Uh but happy to have uh any additional conversations.

Um I do believe I was chatting with Naruto. Uh I think we have an email thread going. So maybe you want to check in with them. But yeah would would always always would love to chat more about how we can collaborate. Um so in short for the bounties we just need to integrate PYUSD in some way.

Boris uh yes uh that is correct. We want to see how you can use PYUSD whether it's you know uh for any variety of different applications that you have but uh it is pivotal to use PYUSD and to show us how PYUSD helped your project or your application or you know any new use cases that you may come up with that we haven't thought of. So yeah uh seems like there's a question for you and me both Pascal. Uh yeah, go for it.

Yeah, just just unmute yourself. That's fine.

Oh, awesome. Um hey Pascal. Um uh hey Mahack. So uh looking at these three bounties, basically the project that we're building uh really briefly is a AI to AI payment protocol. So kind of like think of you telling Siri to book you a restaurant.

Siri goes finds a restaurant AI agent, books the restaurant. And we're here trying to basically integrate PayPal US to process that booking. um on ASI's agent first and uh given these bounties I know in hackathons I don't think we could pick all of them during submission how would we uh or hack if you could guide guide us with my team is which bounty would we choose uh giving that description

that that actually might be a question for me so uh you don't apply for a specific track you just apply for a sponsor so if you're using uh PayPal USD if you're using ASI you can just select both of them during submission, there's going to be a separate tab that asks you what you used. You can literally click the images. It's going to open up a little um a little box that asks you where did you use it, show the line of the code, and you can actually provide some feedback to the partners as well. So, uh the PayPal USD team, for example, is going to be seeing like, hey, our tool technology was fantastic to integrate or maybe was terrible to integrate and you can leak the feedback there directly. So again, you don't apply for the specific bounty track just for the overall because I'm not sure how it's like working with PayPal USD, but we did have some cases before where people won multiple prizes from the same partner because their project just was applicable to multiple and was just that good.

Got it. Got it. So we just basically uh applied to PayPal and give our description and everything then PayPal decides which bounty we

Yes. Exactly.

Got it.

Okay. Yeah, that clears it up. Thank you guys. Yeah, thank you for sharing. We we're super excited about Agentic Payments.

Um, so I look forward to that. Um, seems like we have one last question and I'll take that Pascal and then we can we can stop.

Yeah, that's fine.

Uh, so Dominique here is asking, can I use a mock token to simulate PYUSD? Um, Dominique, if you're comfortable sharing why you'd like to use a mock token uh instead of using the the token itself or or the test tokens, that would be an easier way for me to understand um the the the question at hand. Oh, it's okay if you're not comfortable if you can just you need more than the faucet limit. Okay. Uh okay, maybe that was your question earlier.

Um I unfortunately don't think that would be acceptable uh because uh we want to be sure that you are able to um use PYUSD with all its uh you know contract programmability. Uh and of course while I understand that it's it's the standard and you can easily recreate that but we would definitely prefer for you to stick to the original. you do have a few days uh for hacking. So maybe that gives you enough amount of time to collect the number of tokens you need. I would also say that uh I'm not sure what use case you're looking for, but you don't have to show us very large volume uh in the proof of concept since I'm assuming you might be building a proof of concept for your project.

Uh and you can try to display the same thing maybe in smaller quantities. Um um but yeah uh I hope that helps. [Music]