Kelly Robertson
Amazon may be looking to enter the cryptocurrency market in the near future, with its subsidiary securing a trio of cryptocurrency-related domains.
According to information from Whois Lookup, “amazonethereum.com,” “amazoncryptocurrency.com” and “amazoncryptocurrencies.com” were registered on October 31 by Amazon Technologies, Inc., is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. Also, phone numbers listed on the registration documents connect to Amazon’s legal department.
Will Amazon be using these domains?
It is hard to tell, and as far as we (don’t) know, the company may simply want to safeguard its brand. For what it matters, Amazon also owns “amazonbitcoin.com,” which it secured in 2013 and which currently redirects to the Amazon.com homepage. So if Amazon is not using that domain, why would it use others?
Arguably more interesting than “amazonethereum.com” is “amazoncryptocurrency.com,” which the company could (we hope) use as a platform to launch its own virtual token. Considering that Amazon already has more money than many countries around the world, it may decide to eventually have its own currency.
There is already Amazon Coin, but it is not a (crypto) currency per-se. Perhaps, we see Amazon beefing-up that service with blockchain to create what could easily become the “ultimate e-commerce cryptocurrency,” though with centralized governance.
Amazon still doesn’t accept cryptocurrency payments
Earlier this year a rumor appeared suggesting that Amazon will start accepting bitcoin and payments with a few other cryptocurrencies, but as we know it — nothing of that sort has happened.
As we have reported before, almost 10,000 users signed a petition on Change.org asking the company’s CEO Jeff Bezos to accept Bitcoin and Litecoin as mode of payments. Alas, we’re still waiting…
In the meantime, Bitcoin users can spend their tokens on a number of online stores, such as Overstock — which accepts 40 different cryptocurrencies — as well as Expedia, TigerDirect and even Microsoft’s own store. We’re not sure what Amazon is waiting for?
