Rumors that Amazon may soon be making its way into the cryptocurrency market have been circulating since late 2017. The rumors got sparked after a series of crypto-related domain name registrations were made by Amazon’s legal department in October. The company silently acquired AmazonEthereum.com, AmazonCryptocurrency.com, and AmazonCryptocurrencies.com at that time. While Amazon has made no announcements yet, many people firmly believe it is only a matter of time until Amazon will enter the crypto space.

Investors who think Amazon is in the business of just selling all kinds of items and missing the big picture are wrong. Amazon, the e-commerce and web-service giant might be on the verge of launching its very own cryptocurrency or crypto exchange. With the domains registrations nearing the end of their first year, there is the belief that we might soon hear what Amazon ‘has in store’ for the crypto space.

The era of mass adoption would be upon us within minutes of Jeff Bezos announcing either a proprietary AmazonCoin, or a partnership with an existing platform such as Stellar or Ripple. And it could happen any day, if we should believe all the rumors, at least. After Amazon’s legal department locked up the crypto related domains it was clear for many investors that Amazon would be making crypto related moves very soon. The only question: in what form?

CNBC reported the domain registrations in November, following up on an original report from DomainNameWire, prompting immediate speculation across social and online publications that AMZN was preparing to accept cyptopayments on its platform. At this point, it is highly unlikely that Amazon will integrate Bitcoin since it is slow, expensive, and incapable of processing a high number of transactions. Therefore, creating their own blockchain and cryptocurrency (AmazonCoin) or using faster blockchains and cryptocurrencies like Ripple and Stellar, is more likely.

That said, what would be the point of going out and registering these domains if you were simply going to use one of the existing digital currencies on the Amazon website as a method of payment? It implicates that something quite unusual is being developed behind the scenes in the blockchain industry. While Wall Street is currently more focused on the ups and downs of Bitcoin, Amazon entering the crypto space could have massive implications for cryptos and change the business forever.

AmazonCoin

Considering the capabilities of the Amazon’s team of developers, it can be expected that if the retail giant would integrate a cryptocurrency payment solution, it would be built on their own blockchain and function as a separate Amazon-owned cryptocurrency. A coin by Amazon would probably be accepted by all Amazon’s services, such as Amazon Prime, Twitch, and Audible.

Blockchain-Based Amazon Supply Chain

Amazon is already capable of operating the sales of more than 12 million different products. Since blockchain technology has a great potential to optimize the shipping logistics, you can bet Amazon is looking into the technology. Incorporating a blockchain-based supply chain management system would enable Amazon to document each move of a product through the supply chain and significantly improve its efficiency.

Timeframe

With the end of the year nearing, a lot of great developments are about to happen within the cryptocurrency space. It wouldn’t, therefore, be strange for Amazon to announce something very soon. ICE is going to launch Bakkt in November, Coinbase is fully targeting big investors for its custody platform and many crypto companies, like Ripple, are about to release exciting blockchain projects (xRapid).

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