PayPal and Coinbase are partnering to enable Bitcoin payments

Remember that One Touch mobile payment solution PayPal announced last month? It's ready -- Braintree CEO Bill Ready announced at Disrupt that customers with the PayPal app will have access to mobile payments starting today. The mobile payment platform is the first fruit Braintree has borne since PayPal acquired it last year, but it isn't the last: Ready says his company is laying the foundation for PayPal Bitcoin payments, too.

Ready says that PayPal is partnering with Coinbase to enable a Bitcoin-based payment system. "This would be PayPal's first foray into Bitcoin," he said. "But it's via the Braintree platform." That service is still in the works, he says, and it won't be handled exclusively through PayPal -- merchants interested in using the emerging system will need a Coinbase wallet to accept payments.