There was a lot of criticism and skepticism surrounding Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general for a few years after their launch. Of course, the perspective has changed over the years, as the pioneer crypto, as well as others in the market, appear close to becoming mainstream. Seeing the popularity and hype surrounding cryptocurrencies, there are a number of companies that have begun to accept payments in the form of cryptocurrencies. However, up until now, the world’s biggest eCommerce store, Amazon hasn’t jumped the bandwagon and this is probably because of the digital currency’s unpredictable volatility.
But, it appears that the company is now on course towards changing its attitude regarding cryptocurrencies. As a matter of fact, reports indicate that Amazon may actually have plans of developing a blockchain strategy as well as a special cryptocurrency. An Amazon job listing indicates that the company is looking for a leader who will develop the Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy of the retailer, along with a product roadmap. This future employee of the company would become a member of The Amazon Payment Acceptance & Experience Team. Hence, it will be their responsibility to look into how the company’s clients pay on its website and via its services around the world.
This pretty much indicates that one of the biggest retailers in the world will start accepting crypto payments in the near future. Indeed, Amazon has given confirmation that it will be accepting crypto payments but has not disclosed an exact timeline for it. A statement by the company said that they were inspired by the innovation that appears to be happening in the crypto space and was looking into how it could work out for Amazon. It went on to say that new technologies in the future would enable fast, modern and inexpensive payments and they wanted to bring that future to Amazon as soon as they can.
Back in 2017, Amazon had been very skeptical about cryptocurrencies because of their lack of demand. But, things have clearly changed because more people have to start to use these digital currencies for making investments or keeping their savings. Therefore, there are more parties who are looking to use these digital coins for making their payments and don’t want to have to convert to real money. The most important thing to determine in the future is how Amazon will mitigate the volatility associated with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin because it tends to have significant fluctuations, even during the week.
Perhaps, the company may decide to convert Bitcoins into real money as quickly as possible. Alternatively, they could also hold onto the digital currency to wait for its price to go up, so they can make additional profits. Regardless of what Amazon decides to do, the idea that such a huge retailer will accept crypto payments in the future definitely gives their value a good and solid boost and can actually make some of the existing holders of Bitcoin richer just by this news.
