A recent job posting by Amazon seeking a digital currency and blockchain expert for its payments team means the company could be moving closer to allowing users to pay for their purchases with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
The Amazon job posting seeks an “experienced product leader to develop Amazon’s Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy and product roadmap.” The new hire will join Amazon’s payments acceptance and experience team.
“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,” according to the job posting. Amazon confirmed the job posting to CNBC.
How long it will take Amazon to accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment remains pure speculation at this point, but the sooner, the better. PYMNTS’ research finds that two-thirds of users who held cryptocurrencies purchased them to make transactions, and another 53 percent purchased them because of fear of missing out (FOMO), which is up from 32 percent over previous levels.
When it comes to making purchases, 93 percent of cryptocurrency users would consider using cryptocurrency in the future, and even 59 percent of those who have never held cryptocurrency are interested in doing so.
“We’re inspired by the innovation happening in the cryptocurrency space and are exploring what this could look like on Amazon,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement related to the job posting. “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 Web Services features a service it calls managed blockchain, but the company doesn’t accept crypto as a form of payment — yet.
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