Rumors have been circulating since November that Amazon is exploring cryptocurrencies for online payments. Now, Coinbase – the world’s leading digital currency company – is launching Coinbase Commerce, a PayPal-like plugin that merchants can integrate on their platforms to accept payments in Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. The payment solution pushes the value of cryptocurrencies one massive step forward. It’s also an elegant way for Amazon to target its favorite Amazon Prime customers: millennials, the core group of crypto enthusiasts.
However, conventional analysis tells us that Amazon’s corporate culture is antithetical to the decentralized nature of the blockchain. Furthermore, Amazon’s network is extremely fast – a bit too fast for crypto settlements.
According to CryptoDaily, “With Ethereum offering peak performance of 15 transactions per second (twice the speed of Bitcoin, by the way), it is woefully underpowered for Amazon’s needs. During its last Prime sale, Amazon cleared 40 times that many transactions through its own payment system.”
Although there is no word from Amazon about integrating Coinbase Commerce, the payment option has already been adopted by Shopify, one of the largest multi-channel e-commerce platforms.
Merchants will control their own dashboards.
The announcement is in line with similar strategies by Yamada Denki, Japan’s largest electronics chain, and WeMakePrice, one of the largest e-commerce platforms in South Korea, allowing consumers to pay in the currency of their choice.
Retailers are challenging definitive and dismissive comments about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies being illegitimate currencies because of poor adoption. Like every new technology, adoption takes time. If Bitcoin developers can deliver on their promises of faster transaction speeds, and if Ethereum can scale Casper, its upcoming Proof-of-Stake protocol for faster speeds, many more retailers, including Amazon, are bound to integrate Coinbase Commerce, BitPay and other payment solutions that allow consumers to spend their crypto like regular money.
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