As PayPal continues to reinvent itself, expect the mother-of-all disruptions: a global currency comprised of cash and data. Similar to how voice and data coexist over the same copper wire today, PayPal’s next move will commingle cash and data over a shared platform.

Instead of bits to sound bytes, however, PayPal hopes to seamlessly integrate customer and peer data (in the cloud, of course) and deliver customized business intelligence across multiple platforms to small business merchants all over the world—right when they need it most. There is one catch. Every merchant transaction, including credit cards, would have to involve PayPal.

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