PayPal has published a job offer for the position of blockchain strategy director.
The ad was published both on PayPal’s official website and on their LinkedIn profile, although it was then deleted on the official website.
The ad on LinkedIn, however, remained published, but applications were suspended.
The reason for this suspension is not known.
The offer concerns an anti-money laundering (AML) expert with “deep experience in blockchain technology”, who is meant to collaborate with the company’s strategy in the evaluation of new opportunities and partnerships.
The person to be selected will be responsible for evaluating any blockchain use cases in the specific area of financial crime risk management, and for supervising AML investigation activities in this area.
A “deep subject matter expertise in investigative practices” is explicitly required, which suggests that this is a role of analysis against illegal activities, rather than a proactive contributor to the development of blockchain solutions.
In fact, PayPal has long been engaged in a real fight against money laundering and this announcement suggests that they consider it necessary to equip themselves with experts in chain-analysis in order to extend their analysis also to the crypto sector.
The list of responsibilities that this new director will be entrusted with concerns all the analysis and research of money laundering activities, or similar, including the generic risks of financial crimes, and the identification of trends in this direction. There are no references to technological development activities in the announcement.
A 10-year experience is required, with specific reference to the legal field, and a preference for candidates who have already held similar roles in large traditional financial institutions or financial companies using blockchain.
In other words, at a technological level, there is only a requirement for proficiency, especially in chain-analysis tools, while the requirement to have a “proven ability to operate in ambiguous environments” is interesting.
This announcement suggests that the company is particularly concerned about being involved in some way in illegal practices hidden by its users through the use of blockchain. However, it also indicates that they are aware that there are analysis tools that allow them to bring these activities to light, mainly due to the fact that all on-chain transactions of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are public and virtually eternal.
