Business & Economy
Amazon May Start Accepting Cryptocurrency Payments This Year
E-commerce giant, Amazon may soon start accepting cryptocurrency payments as the firm is looking to hire a Digital Currency and Blockchain Product Lead. This comes after news about an insider reporting to the London business newspaper called City A.M, that Amazon is planning to start accepting Bitcoin (BTC) payments at the end of 2021.
Amazon is an internet-based enterprise that sells books, music, movies, housewares, electronics, toys and many other goods, either directly or as a middleman between other retailers and its millions of customers. Being an internet-based enterprise, it comes as no surprise that the e-commerce giant would be exploring the option of payment through an internet-based currency.
The initial source stated, “This isn’t just going through the motions to set up cryptocurrency payment solutions at some point in the future. This is a full-on, well-discussed, integral part of the future mechanism of how Amazon will work.”
The source indicated that while Bitcoin is the first step in Amazon’s cryptocurrency ambitions, executives at the company intend to add other established cryptocurrencies in the future. This means that just like Tesla, Bitcoin will be the first cryptocurrency that Amazon will accept.
The source stated that the “directive is coming from the very top,” referring to Jeff Bezos, adding “This entire project is pretty much ready to roll.”
In addition to accepting Bitcoin payments, Amazon is said to be exploring the creation of its cryptocurrency, possibly as early as 2022.
The Job posting states that the candidate will “work closely with teams across Amazon including AWS to develop the roadmap including the customer experience, technical strategy and capabilities as well as the launch strategy.”
Amazon responded to the posting stating, “We’re inspired by the innovation happening in the cryptocurrency space and are exploring what this could look like on Amazon. We believe the future will be built on new technologies that enable modern, fast and inexpensive payments, and hope to bring that future to Amazon customers as soon as possible.”
What you should know
Other technology-based companies have recently pushed further into the cryptocurrency space. In April, PayPal Holdings Inc. began letting select customers of its Venmo app buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies. After adding cryptocurrency transactions to the PayPal app, the company said people who use the feature logged on twice as often as they did before the change.
Asides from this, many institutions have added Bitcoin to their balance sheet. A notable candidate would be MicroStrategy, which is run by Bitcoin Enthusiast, Michael Saylor. The company has gone as far as selling shares and taking loans to acquire the flagship cryptocurrency.
Another company to mention would be Tesla Inc., owned by the most controversial Elon Musk. The company earlier accepted Bitcoin for purchases but pulled back in May, citing concerns about the use of fossil fuels in crypto mining. However, Elon Musk at the ₿ word conference stated that mining is pivoting into using more renewable energy and that Tesla will most likely resume accepting Bitcoin as a means of payment.
This news means there is still institutional demand for the flagship cryptocurrency and once Amazon starts to accept Bitcoin, many other e-commerce companies will likely follow suit to keep up with the competitive nature of the industry.
Amazon, as of the time of writing this report, was trading at $3,692, up 0.97% for the day.
