A Reddit.com link is making its rounds across the web this Wednesday evening regarding Google’s payments system and bitcoin.
“Google confirms their payments team is working to incorporate bitcoin”, the post proclaims. Therein, a series of alleged screenshots between the poster and several bigwigs at the Mountain View-based company, which include Vic Gundotra (Senior VP, Social) and Ariel Bardin (VP of payments).
“We are paying attention to this issue,” said Gundotra in a reply to the Reddit user, according to the screenshots provided. Another Google employee, Sridhar Ramaswamy, added: “We are working in the payments team to figure out how to incorporate bitcoin into our plans.”
But could this be anything more pure interest on Google’s part? Do we really have any confirmation of anything here?
“As we continue to work on Google Wallet, we’re grateful for a very wide range of suggestions,” a Google spokesperson said to newsBTC this evening in response to the post on Reddit. “While we’re keen to actively engage with Wallet users to help inform and shape the product, there’s no change to our position: we have no current plans regarding Bitcoin.”
The spokesperson directed me to an October 2013 article on CNBC in which a similar circumstance arose, but was subsequently denied by Google.
For now, the answer is clear: no plans. Whether or not the Reddit submission was made up: well, we’ll let you decide. The Reddit user does, however, insist he did not fabricate the emails, even stating that Forbes’ Andy Greenberg verified the correspondences:
“He can confirm they are unaltered from the screen shots I posted. He has them, he can verify the headers, footers, feathers, colors and whatever else. I stand by what I posted.”
Author note: We recognize there may not be communication between product managers and press relations departments, but it should be understood that the above only serves as information. When we asked Google, this is what they came back with. newsBTC did also reach out to Vic, but did not receive a response.