PayPal has added support for prepaid gift cards through PayPal Checkout, thanks to a “patent-pending and innovative method” that the company claims took “months of research and investigations” to develop. Though prepaid gift cards are a highly lucrative industry–research firm First Data estimated that more than $43 billion worth of gift cards were purchased during the 2012 holiday season–they can be difficult to use on e-commerce sites because most don’t have a billing address attached to them. In fact, 60% of people who received gift cards told First Data they preferred to use them at brick-and-mortar locations. By offering gift card support through PayPal Checkout, the company may encourage more shoppers to redeem their gift cards online. PayPal isn’t doing this out of altruism, of course.