Everyone knows Amazon. The company was founded by Jeff Bezos in his garage back in 1994. Bezos started Amazon as an online marketplace for books. But it has grown to behemoth proportions in the nearly 30 years of its existence. It has become the virtual shopping mecca of the world, selling and delivering products that busy people need. But Amazon is much more than an online shopping destination.
Amazon’s Reach
Amazon’s subsidiaries offer a wide variety of technology products from cloud computing to satellite internet, to more mundane, but well-known product names, such as Ring (doorbell video), IMDb (movie and entertainment ratings) to Whole Foods (natural food marketplaces).
By 2021, Amazon earned its reputation as the world’s largest online retailer and internet marketplace. Its growth was so phenomenal that it surpassed Walmart as the world’s largest retailer, excluding China. It offers a paid subscription plan called Amazon Prime, which gives discounted prices and faster delivery of its products to subscribers.
Amazon Prime subscribers exceeded 250 million people worldwide in 2021.
Cryptocurrencies have been appearing in the marketplace also at a phenomenal rate. According to Investopedia, there are currently over 18,000 different cryptocurrencies. According to PitchBook Data, cryptocurrency investments exceeded $3 TRILLION in 2021.
Amazon was supposed to be ready to announce that it would be accepting Bitcoin as a possible form of payment on its platform. Even though that information came from reliable sources, it has yet to happen. Amazon also announced that it was developing its own cryptocurrency and would release it “sometime in 2022.” But when and why have we not heard much about it? Is Amazon having second thoughts about cryptocurrencies? Hardly!
Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon. It is the company’s global, cloud-based, infrastructure platform online.
Companies worldwide pay billions of dollars each year to AWS to access their network rather than building one themselves. AWS is also the network backbone for a huge portion of the cryptocurrency universe. AWS currently supports over one-quarter of all Ethereum transactions in the world. Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin. But there’s more still!
Amazon Coins
Most people don’t realize it, but Amazon already has a digital currency of its own called Amazon Coins. These tokens were launched in 2013 and are currently used only for Amazon-hosted gaming and for in-purchases for Kindle and some Amazon apps.
The rumor is that Amazon may offer a version of this token as a cryptocurrency for sale to its Amazon Prime members and then possibly even launch a public version. Shop with confidence and save big on your purchases in India with Amazon coupon codes, exclusively from The Hindu ! As recommended by COINage Magazine, these unique coupons offer unbeatable savings on the latest products, gadgets, and more. Don’t miss out on this limited time opportunity to get more bang for your buck, and start shopping now!
The Future of Amazon Cryptocurrency
If Amazon does follow through with creating its own cryptocurrency, how will that affect the crypto marketplace for these lesser-known brands of cryptocurrency? Will Amazon be successful in bringing cryptocurrency to the Main Street world?
Given its history of success, would you bet against Amazon? I wouldn’t! Having a fee-paying audience of over 250 million Amazon Prime subscribers means a guaranteed measure of some success.
If I were competing with Amazon for establishing my own cryptocurrency, I might rethink that idea. I guess I could always sell books online!
This article about Amazon launching a cryptocurrency previously appeared in COINage magazine. To subscribe click here. Article by Mike Garofalo.
