Update (July 27): Following media reports, Amazon came forward to address the rumors and denied the report published by the London newspaper City A.M.
“Notwithstanding our interest in the space, the speculation that has ensued around our specific plans for cryptocurrencies is not true. “We remain focused on exploring what this could look like for customers shopping on Amazon,” a company spokesperson told Reuters.
Reports suggest that the eCommerce giant Amazon is working on its own cryptocurrency. We are yet to hear a name, but we expect it not to be something like DogeCoin. Amazon is following the footsteps of Tesla; an insider tip sourced by London newspaper City A.M. suggests the company would start accepting Bitcoin as a payment by the end of this year.
However, let’s talk about the exciting Amazon cryptocurrency news we just heard. Jeff Bezos is trying to come with one interesting thing after the other. We saw him launching into space a few days back, and now a new crypto coin is coming up.
Amazon Cryptocurrency is on the way
The source told the newspaper that Amazon is developing a cryptocurrency that they dubbed “native token.” Amazon Coin, or Prime Coin, or whatever it would be called, is expected to arrive sometime around 2022.
Meanwhile, a couple of blockchain-related job postings made by Amazon have been spotted online over the months, which strengthens the claims made by the newspaper. The company is looking for someone “who can leverage domain expertise in blockchain, distributed ledger, central bank digital currencies, and cryptocurrency.”
The insider source told City A.M. that “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’s known that Amazon’s crypto payment offering will start with Bitcoin and expand to a total of eight coins, including other popular names like ETH and Bitcoin. The e-commerce giant has been working on it since 2019, and the plans are expected to commence soon.
Of course, its own crypto would become the focus in the long run. The insider was also quoted saying that “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.”
While the idea sounds ambitious, Gizmodo’s Matt Novak was quick to point a finger to the other side of the story: putting too much power in the company’s hands. In the past, various companies paid their employees in what was known as “Scrip,” a kind of currency alternative that would only work at the company store.
Imagine a big conglomerate trying to control everything you buy or giving you refunds or loyalty points in its homebaked crypto money.
On one note, it feels like overthinking the issue. Still, we have seen Amazon defending itself in anti-trust investigations, trying to prove how it doesn’t abuse its monopoly in the market.
And Big Tech running after crypto money isn’t something new. We have seen Facebook trying to launch Libra (now known as Diem). However, it licked the sauce of widespread criticism.
Nonetheless, let’s wait to see what Amazon has in its store for the crypto future.
What are your thoughts on the Amazon cryptocurrency? Drop them in the comments below.
