As reported on Bloomberg.com, Amazon.com Inc.’s payments team is exploring letting customers use cryptocurrencies to pay for their orders — a development that’s roiling digital currency markets. This news may be one of the reasons why Bitcoin has been on a tear for the last 24-36 hours breaking the $40,000.00 mark once again.
An Amazon job posting published online last week seeks a “Digital Currency and Blockchain Product Lead.†After Insider reported the existence of the posting earlier, Bitcoin surged to about $40,000. Amazon shares gained about 1% in New York.
When the largest digital retailer in the world looks at plans that involve cryptocurrency, it will get everyones attention. This can truly be a game changer in the crypto space for adaptation of crypto in retail and consumer case use.
RECOMMENDED READ ON ETREND: The Current State of Cryptocurrency in E-Commerce
“You will leverage your domain expertise in Blockchain, Distributed Ledger, Central Bank Digital Currencies and Cryptocurrency to develop the case for the capabilities which should be developed,†the posting says. “You 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.â€
As Amazon continues to push competitive boundaries with competitors across various industries, many from Apple (hardware), to PayPal (financial), to Tesla have all made news regarding their dive into cryptocurrency. Amazon see not only see’s an opportunity to get into the space but a need to ensure it doesn’t stay far behind the big tech giants as we see more and more companies not only hold cryptocurrency in their balance sheets but also make use cases as the younger generation sees cryptocurrency as the future of payment.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, “PayPal Wants More Customers to Pay Using Crypto Assets,”Building out its crypto offering enables PayPal to connect with customers that are more engaged than those using other forms of payment, said Harshita Rawat, a managing director and senior research analyst at financial services firm AllianceBernstein Holding LP. About half of PayPal’s crypto users open its app every day, the company said.
“Both cryptocurrencies and the underlying technology have become a big strategic focus for the company,†Ms. Rawat said.
As Amazon Pay continues to try to gain marketshare in the very competitive payment processing space taking 3.89% marketshare (source: datanyze.com) vs. PayPal at 54.33%, accepting cryptocurrency is in its natural path to compete.
It will be interesting to see how Amazon tackles the volatility of the big crypto coins such as Bitcoin and Etherum into actual customer use, or maybe…just maybe…create it own cryptocurrency, which it has the user base to do so, successfully.
