Report: Amazon is preparing to accept Bitcoin, leading to a cryptocurrency surge -- tokenization also possible
Speculation about the possibility of Amazon starting to accept Bitcoin as a method of payment started to circulate after the company posted a job listing for a Digital Currency and Blockchain Product Lead.
This led to a surge in the cryptocurrency, with the trading heading toward $40,000 in an impressive 20 percent jump over the weekend. In addition to the job posting, an insider has been quoted as saying that not only is Amazon working toward accepting Bitcoin by the end of 2021, but it is also considering launching its own token.
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The job listing explains what Amazon is looking for: "The Amazon Payment Acceptance & Experience Team is responsible for how Amazon’s customers pay on Amazon's sites and through Amazon’s services around the globe. The Payments Acceptance & Experience team is seeking an experienced product leader to develop Amazon’s Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy and product roadmap".
It goes on to say to potential candidates:
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, drive overall vision and product strategy, and gain leadership buy-in and investment for new capabilities. 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.
While the posting itself makes no direct reference to Bitcoin or plans to start accepting it, a report from City AM has information from an unnamed insider. She is quoted as saying that not only is Amazon looking to accept Bitcoin payment by the end of the year, but also that "Ethereum, Cardano and Bitcoin Cash will be next in line before they bring about eight of the most popular cryptocurrencies online".
The online retailing giant is said to have been working on the cryptocurrency plans since 2019, the insider told City AM. She also said:
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. It begins with Bitcoin -- this is the key first stage of this crypto project, and the directive is coming from the very top... Jeff Bezos himself.
The insider gives an intriguing glimpse into Amazon's cryptocurrency plans, saying:
When all these crypto ducks are lined up, there's another twist to push things even further into Amazon's favour -- a native token. After a year of experiencing cryptocurrency as a way of making payments for goods, it is looking increasingly possible that we're heading towards tokenisation.
She concludes by saying: "This then becomes a multi-level infrastructure where you can pay for goods and services or earn tokens in a loyalty scheme. There's little more to it, for now, but you can guarantee the Bitcoin plan will be monitored closely as opportunities with Amazon’s own version of a crypto will be explored".
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