Amazon is hiring a digital currency and blockchain product lead for its payments team, according to a new job listing. First reported by Insider, the ecommerce giant is looking for an “experienced product leader to develop Amazon’s Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy and product roadmap.” The listing, which Amazon has confirmed is legitimate, continues:
You will leverage your domain expertise in Blockchain, Distributed Ledger, Central Bank Digital Currencies and Cryptocurrency to develop the case for the capabilities which should be developed, drive overall vision and product strategy, and gain leadership buy-in and investment for new capabilities.
Amazon.com doesn’t accept cryptocurrency as payment, but a spokesperson told Insider that the company was “inspired by the innovation happening in the cryptocurrency space and are exploring what this could look like on Amazon.”
Amazon’s cloud division, Amazon Web Services (AWS) already has a managed blockchain service. But CEO Andy Jassy said in 2017 when he was head of the AWS division that the company was “watching” the space but that Amazon didn’t see “a lot of practical use cases for blockchain that are much broader than using a distributed ledger,” ZDNet reported at the time. That would appear to be changing if this new listing is any indication.
Apple posted a similar listing in May for a business development manager for “alternative payments,” and among the key qualifications for the role was five years of experience “working in or with alternative payment providers, such as digital wallets, BNPL, Fast Payments, cryptocurrency and etc.”
