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Amazon confirms Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy

Rick Steves

“The Payments Acceptance & Experience team is seeking an experienced product leader to develop Amazon’s Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy and product roadmap”, said a job announcement.

A job posting earlier in February has led the industry to believe Amazon has a proprietary cryptocurrency project in the works.

While the project hasn’t been announced yet, the past job announcement called for a Software Development Manager – Digital and Emerging Payments.

At the time, Amazon stated on the job posting its intention to “launch a new payment product starting with Mexico as our initial launch country. This product will enable customers to convert their cash into digital currency using which customers can enjoy online services including shopping for goods and/or services like Prime Video.”

A new job announcement indicates that Amazon is growing the team. The multinational company is looking for a Digital Currency and Blockchain Product Lead, based in Seattle.

“The Payments Acceptance & Experience team is seeking an experienced product leader to develop Amazon’s Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy and product roadmap.

“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. You will work closely with teams across Amazon including AWS to develop the roadmap including the customer experience, technical strategy and capabilities as well as the launch strategy.”

Amazon confirmed the job posting to CNBC, with a spokesperson stating: “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.”

Other internet giants have come forward with their blockchain projects, namely Facebook’s Diem which has plans to launch its own stablecoin.

The Diem Association has shifted its operations to the US – after quitting on a Swiss FINMA license – and partnered with crypto-friendly US bank Silvergate, which will become the exclusive issuer of the Diem USD stablecoin.

Diem, formerly known as Libra Association, is not meant to rely on cryptocurrency mining. Only members of the Diem Association will be able to process transactions via the permissioned blockchain.

The Diem Association officially plans to transition to a permissionless proof-of-stake system within five years, but according to their own materials, no solution exists “that can deliver the scale, stability, and security needed to support billions of people and transactions across the globe through a permissionless network.”

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