It might sound like jumping the gun, but PayPal will be the first major company to start researching approaches to money and finance in space. They have heralded galactic transactions as ‘the future of commerce’.

The new service has been developed by the eBay owned money transfer company with assistance from SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute. They will also be partnering with other scientific institutions and individuals supporting or advocating for space travel.

PayPal will be hoping to take advantage of the developing ‘space tourism’ industry. Virgin Galactic are among the companies hoping to launch commercial space flights in the foreseeable future, and the development of more long-term 'orbital hotels' is also planned.

Space industry

PayPal will also be attempting to address logistical financial issues related to theorised industries such as asteroid mining. Organisers of the Mars One project are hoping to send the first colonists to Mars within the next ten years, again potentially resulting in the need for new approaches to galactic payments.

Speaking about the motivations behind the new initiative, PayPal’s President David Marcus said “as space tourism programs are opening space travel to ‘the rest of us’ this drives questions about the commercialization of space. We may not answer these questions today or even this year, but one thing is clear, we won't be using cash in space. We look forward to pushing payments from our world to the next, and beyond."

However, given the current logistical issues and expenses of transmitting data from space to Earth (and vice versa), it is likely to be some time before future space tourists, workers and astronauts will be making money transfers from infinity and beyond.

Earthbound users may also be wondering why PayPal are diverting attention to space while their services have yet to launch in many international territories.

The company has released a video and infographic outlining the reasons behind the Galactic project: