Bitcoin has drawn the attention of retailer after retailer as well as investors and regulators, who see the digital currency as a potential payment system. But has it drawn the attention of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) as well? Forbes‘ Andy Greenberg reported on a Reddit post which appears to suggest that Google might by considering integrating bitcoin into Google Wallet. However, the search giant itself told Forbes and The Next Web‘s Emil Protalinski that it has “no current plans regarding bitcoin.”
Google execs contradict each other
The Reddit post was started by Jarar Malik, an early adopter of bitcoin. He told Forbes that he emailed a number of the big technology companies, including Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG). Although Google’s Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt didn’t email back, he said Google Senior VP Vic Gundotra did. Malik forward Gundotra’s emails to Forbes. The executive said they are “working in the payments team to figure out how to incorporate bitcoin” into their plans. He also said he would get back in touch when they’re “a little more sure” about what they plan to do.
However, contacting Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s PR department is an entirely different story, as the company said it doesn’t have any current plans for the digital currency. Of course this could be taken to mean that they don’t have anything concrete figured out or that they aren’t interested at all. If the latter conclusion is true, then it would seem that we have a contradiction on our hands here.
Could Google use bitcoin?
Recently it was revealed that JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) was trying to patent a payment system similar to bitcoin, so it would make sense that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) may be interested in integrated the digital currency into Google Wallet. However, just how the search giant would go about integrating bitcoin is a bit of a mystery.
There’s always the chance that the company will look for a key acquisition in this area. Recently Google acquired Nest Labs, which is known for making a smart thermostat. We looked at some possible startup companies Google might be interested in acquiring this year, but there weren’t any bitcoin wallet companies on there. Perhaps we should have added a company like Coinbase into the mix.
