TL;DR Breakdown
- Amazon denies plan to resume accepting Bitcoin payment soon.
- Amazon was pressured to accept crypto payment in the past but firm keeps mute.
- Spokesperson hints that Amazon is open to accepting crypto payment.
Amazon has denied trending reports that it will begin accepting Bitcoin payment by the end of the year.
Reports that the e-commerce giant would begin accepting Bitcoin payment emerged on Monday after UK-based media firm, City AM reported that a spokesperson from Amazon confirmed it to them.
The City AM report has it that the directive for Amazon to accept Bitcoin payment came directly from CEO, Jeff Bezos. However, reports from Reuters and Aljazeera have it that Amazon has released an official statement denying the report.
AMazon and Bitcoin payments
The e-commerce giant for many years now has been persuaded, pressured, and intimidated to begin accepting Bitcoin payment by users all to no avail.
Earlier this year, a petition was signed by over 140 thousand Amazon users worldwide for the firm to accept Doge payment. This petition fell on deaf ears.
Amazon had clearly been ignoring accepting crypto payments for a long time. However, days before the City AM report, the firm had rolled out an application to hire a digital currency and Blockchain product team.
The team was going to be responsible for facilitating billions of online customer payments through the sites and services of the firm.
A spokesperson for the firm also said that the firm is inspired by the innovation happening in the cryptocurrency space, and Amazon keeps exploring what it would look like with them.
“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,” the spokesperson said.
All these made it easily believable that Amazon would soon begin accepting Bitcoin payment.
Other companies accept Bitcoin
Outside Amazon, a significant number of firms have started to accept virtual currencies for payment.
One of these companies includes Tesla which once said it accepted, then later suspended Bitcoin payment.
Last week, Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said the electric-car maker will most likely restart accepting Bitcoin as payment once it conducts due diligence on the amount of renewable energy used to mine the currency.
