Amazon doesn’t allow you to pay for orders using cryptocurrency. There are ways around that, but they won’t be necessary for much longer as the company has confirmed it is gearing up to start accepting cryptocurrency as a valid form of payment.
As Tom’s Hardware reports, the first sign this shift is happening was spotted via a new job listing. Amazon is looking to hire a Digital Currency and Blockchain Product Lead who will be tasked with using their “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.”
It sounds like Amazon is thinking about adding a “Pay with Bitcoin” option to its shopping cart, and Business Insider managed to confirm that Amazon is preparing to introduce cryptocurrency support, with a spokesperson saying:
“We are inspired by the innovation happening in the cryptocurrency space and are exploring what this could look like on Amazon … 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.”
It’s unclear how quickly this could happen, which cryptocurrencies Amazon will decide to accept, or if there will be any limits on how and when cryptocurrency can be used. That’s clearly going to be the job of the Product Lead to figure out when Amazon finds the right person.
The FTC has recently warned consumers to be careful due to how many cryptocurrency scams there are, while Malaysia is busy destroying Bitcoin mining rigs using a steamroller. Clearly we are still in the very early days of crypto, but Amazon’s support could go a long way towards making everyone take it more seriously.
