While there are big companies that do accept cryptocurrencies as payments, Amazon is not one of them, perhaps because of its unpredictable volatility. Yet the company is about to change its attitude towards cryptocurrencies and even plans to develop a special cryptocurrency and blockchain strategy.
Business Insider has found an Amazon job listing that seeks a leader who will develop the retailer's Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy as well as a product roadmap. The future employee of Amazon will be a part of 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,' which pretty much implies that one of the world's biggest retailers will start accepting cryptocurrency as payments sometimes in the future.
Indeed, Amazon has confirmed to Business Insider that it is going to accept cryptocurrencies, but did not reveal when exactly this is set to happen.
"We are inspired by the innovation happening in the cryptocurrency space and are exploring what this could look like on Amazon," a statement by Amazon reads. "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."
Amazon used to be pretty sceptic about cryptocurrencies back in 2017 due to lack of demand, but as more people start using cryptocurrencies to keep their savings or make investments, there are obviously enough parties interested in using various digital coins for payments and avoid their conversion to real money.
What remains to be seen is how Amazon plans to mitigate volatility of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin that can fluctuate significantly even during a week. Perhaps, the company will simply convert Bitcoins to real money quickly. Alternatively, it may attempt to make some additional profits by waiting till a digital currency goes up in price.
But no matter what Amazon will do with cryptocurrencies it gets as payments, the very idea that such a large retailer will accept cryptocurrencies increases their value and makes some of the holders richer.
