Now Amazon explores cryptocurrencies, blockchain; hints towards crypto payments with this job posting

Amazon customers might soon pay in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin for their orders. Amid growing interest from institutional investors and corporates, Amazon is also looking to build capabilities around digital currencies and the underlying blockchain technology for its payments vertical. According to a job posting by Amazon, its Payment Acceptance & Experience team, which looks after its payments business, is looking to hire a digital currency and blockchain product lead at its headquarters in Seattle, Washington. The move indicated Amazon’s possible experiment in enabling cryptocurrencies for accepting payments from customers in near future.

“The Payments Acceptance & Experience team is seeking an experienced product leader to develop Amazon’s Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy and product roadmap,” the job description read. Amazon said the candidate will leverage his/her 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.

“We’re 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,” Amazon said in a statement shared with the media.

Also read: Elon Musk says Tesla most likely to resume accepting Bitcoin post ‘due diligence’ on renewable energy

Essentially, the candidate is expected to lead Amazon’s cryptocurrency efforts into payments as he/she would “Own the vision and strategy for Amazon’s Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy and product roadmap.” The candidate needs to possess deep understanding of the digital/cryptocurrency ecosystem and related technologies, said Amazon. The company doesn’t accept cryptocurrencies as payments yet.

Currently, the cloud computing arm Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers Managed Blockchain service. The service allows users to join public networks or create private networks across multiple AWS accounts with the open-source frameworks, Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum. According to Amazon, these blockchain frameworks enable secure transaction and data sharing on a distributed and immutable ledger.

In a similar development, Apple had also posted a job titled “Business Development Manager – Alternative Payments” in May this year that hinted towards its interest in cryptocurrencies. The company’s payment vertical called Apple Wallets, Payments, and Commerce (WPC) was looking for a business development manager to lead its “Alternative Payments Partnerships”. “It is indeed a great sign that major companies are starting to adopt digital currencies. As true believers of decentralization, we have always seen this is as inevitable. It is the equivalent of banks getting computerized 20 years ago,” Pruthvi Rao, Co-founder & CEO of blockchain company Zebi had told Financial Express Online.