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Amazon is finally getting serious about crypto technologies like bitcoin, a move that pushes the e-commerce giant into the burgeoning yet wildly volatile digital-currency space.
The company is seeking a leader to "develop Amazon's Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy and product roadmap," according to a June 22 job listing. The position is part of the "Payments Acceptance & Experience team," suggesting Amazon might be planning to accept digital currency as a payment method.
The job post goes on: "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."
In an email to Insider, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed the job posting and the company's ambition to eventually accept cryptocurrency from its customers.
"We're inspired by the innovation happening in the cryptocurrency space and are exploring what this could look like on Amazon," the spokesperson said. "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's public interest in cryptocurrency as a payment method is a sharp turn from its position in 2017, when Amazon Pay VP Patrick Gauthier told CNBC the company had no plans to accept cryptocurrency because there wasn't much demand. At the time, Amazon bought a few domain names related to cryptocurrency, in part to protect its brand, including, amazonethereum.com, amazoncryptocurrency.com, and amazoncryptocurrencies.com.
Amazon currently offers its own managed blockchain service through the Amazon Web Services cloud service. But the company doesn't yet accept cryptocurrency as payments on its online shopping site.
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See Also:
- Reclusive billionaire and Google cofounder Larry Page has been off the grid for over a year. Sources say he's been hiding out on Fijian islands that are cut off from most travelers during the pandemic.
- Elon Musk asked Jack Dorsey whether Twitter would let advertisers pay in Bitcoin. Dorsey dodged the question.
- Uber is losing so many employees that executives had to address questions about the problem at recent all-hands meetings
