When Will Amazon (AMZN) Accept Bitcoin?

[Lucius]

@Zain Tariq, if Amazon added a Bitcoin payment option tomorrow, would you buy something right away? I believe that you and 90% of all those who own Bitcoin would not do that because for most Bitcoin has never been a currency, but just a way to profit on price volatility.

Your question is therefore at the level of all those irrelevant and trivial issues related to Bitcoin and some globally positioned companies that do not care for that same Bitcoin even 1%. As some others have concluded, there is no profit for them - and the whole world revolves around profit.

[pooya87]

Aside from price volatility, there's also legal concern and number of it's customer who're willing to pay with BTC.

I doubt that "legal concerns" are that big a concern that would prevent addition of bitcoin payment option. After all we have had other big companies in US like Valve or giants like Microsoft accept bitcoin payments.

[Darker45]

We, Bitcoin supporters, oftentimes think that Bitcoin is already playing a huge role in the world of e-commerce, that it's a significant loss to international companies not to embrace Bitcoin. That is probably wrong, at least for today. It could altogether be different in the years to come. But, for now, let us be realistic and admit the fact that Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and so on do not need Bitcoin. Again, at least for now.

So it is not about price volatility, tax, pseudo-anonymity which could be linked to money laundering, and so forth. It simply is a case of platforms not seeing the need, much less the urgency, to admit Bitcoin to their payment options.

I know we support Bitcoin and have a bias with it. But perhaps it's better to be objective about it and moderate our expectations.

[PrimeNumber7]

Aside from price volatility, there's also legal concern and number of it's customer who're willing to pay with BTC.

I doubt that "legal concerns" are that big a concern that would prevent addition of bitcoin payment option. After all we have had other big companies in US like Valve or giants like Microsoft accept bitcoin payments.

While i agree it's not that big concern, both Valve and Microsoft accept BTC through BitPay. While i don't know whether microsoft still use BitPay, it means some legal concerns (such as "blacklisted" coin) are off-loaded to BitPay. But since Amazon have their own financial service and have more goods/service variation, i expect there are more legal concern.

If Microsoft is using a third-party payment provider, it is the payment provider's job to prevent laundered coin from being accepted. This is also the case for credit cards -- it is the job of the credit card processor to make sure the credit card being used is not stolen.

[pakhitheboss]

I am not sure about Bitcoin but if this news is correct then Amazon might be considering to accept SHIBA INU for payment. You can read this news here - https://watcher.guru/news/amazon-to-accept-shiba-inu-as-payment-shib-alike-dog-seen-on-amazon-day-page

This might be a coincidence but if it actually happens then this meme coin might rule the market in 2022.

Rather than news, I would call it a rumor. And, in fact, if you look at the headline, it only talks about considering and it does so in a question. It's the only source that talks about it (other than reddit, which uses that same source).

There have been so many rumors on the subject, that without more data or more sources there is little chance of it being true.

Yes, I know that it was a rumour but it was effective for the meme coin as the price appreciated by more than 25% on that day. In my opinion, amazon would not accept any cryptocurrencies in the future too as the problem they will face is in converting cryptos to fiat as countries, where they are operating, have different laws for conversion of crypto to fiat. Bitpay provides a solution here as it enables anyone to make a purchase on Amazon using Bitcoin.

[AakZaki]

@Zain Tariq, if Amazon added a Bitcoin payment option tomorrow, would you buy something right away? I believe that you and 90% of all those who own Bitcoin would not do that because for most Bitcoin has never been a currency, but just a way to profit on price volatility.

~snip~

We won't be able to guess. When? we'll just have to wait, I think even if they don't accept it as bitcoin payments it will still grow to reach new ATH. Although I also know that if Amazon does accept Bitcoin then it is fundamentally good to convince investors to increase their Bitcoin amount. Amazon may have known this but they certainly had a lot of considerations to accept or reject Bitcoin until recently.

[RapTarX]

It's quite strange though. Amazon should have considered it long ago since volatility isn’t an issue anymore these days due to the different payment processor.
Well, Wallmart will probably consider it very soon as they are planning to join the metaverse eco system. It is also possible that they will launch their own crypto & will allow/force to use that in their eco system.

[suzanne5223]

Waiting for Amazon to integrate Bitcoin as part of their payment method is like moving a mountain and if you notice it very well, it was never on their agenda to accept Bitcoin as payment (I don't know why but it is clear that they are not planning to do add it).
Meanwhile, there is alot of alternative means of buying stuff on Amazon using Bitcoin and I don't know why some people can't just make use of it rather than barking up the wrong tree.

[Welsh]

We, Bitcoin supporters, oftentimes think that Bitcoin is already playing a huge role in the world of e-commerce, that it's a significant loss to international companies not to embrace Bitcoin. That is probably wrong, at least for today. It could altogether be different in the years to come. But, for now, let us be realistic and admit the fact that Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and so on do not need Bitcoin. Again, at least for now.

Hmm, I'm not quite sure. I imagine it would be beneficial for them to add another payment processor, especially when they were having problems with VISA on the platform, which I do believe has been sorted now. I actually thought that the removal of VISA payments on their platform might actually accelerate the implementation of Bitcoin payments, but it wasn't to be.

Although, aside from development costs, and potentially training support staff to help with any issues or questions, there shouldn't be too many costs, especially if they were to develop their own payment processor.

While i agree it's not that big concern, both Valve and Microsoft accept BTC through BitPay. While i don't know whether microsoft still use BitPay, it means some legal concerns (such as "blacklisted" coin) are off-loaded to BitPay. But since Amazon have their own financial service and have more goods/service variation, i expect there are more legal concern.

If I know Google/Amazon like I think I do, they'll want to create their own Bitcoin payment processor so they can cut the middle man out, and rake in the additional fees. It might actually make a lot of sense for them since they are getting paid both for the product, as well as the processing fees that payment processors typically have. However, do that would have some legal implications which they'd have to work out.

I do expect Amazon, and Google as a whole to accept Bitcoin eventually. As soon as they can leverage it like they want, they'll get in on it.

[Rengga Jati]

Why Biggest E-Commerce’s platforms (Amazon,e-bay,walmart,etc)are still not accepting the biggest digital acids BTC,why they are not giving us the payments methods for crypto currency?

It has been stated by Amazon itself that they will not have Bitcoin as one of their payment methods (don't know whether there will be changes or not in the very future.).
At least, they have several times clarified about the acceptance of Bitcoin in Amazon.
Based on the latest news, they only still focus on exploration for always better things for customer shopping, but not for this payment method.
 latest source

[pooya87]

Hmm, I'm not quite sure. I imagine it would be beneficial for them to add another payment processor, especially when they were having problems with VISA on the platform, which I do believe has been sorted now. I actually thought that the removal of VISA payments on their platform might actually accelerate the implementation of Bitcoin payments, but it wasn't to be.

Although, aside from development costs, and potentially training support staff to help with any issues or questions, there shouldn't be too many costs, especially if they were to develop their own payment processor.

It is all about customers and how many of them are going to pay with bitcoin. Imagine a restaurant with regular menu, they don't cook some rare food that nobody would ever order like some weird foreign recipe. If they do (for example buy the ingredients, teach the cooks, etc) they would just add an unnecessary cost that can't be justified in a business.

It is the same with bitcoin payments. Adding the option is good on paper but if only a very small number of people are going to use it (like 0.1% of their total customers) then it is not worth the hassle.
So far the bitcoin adoption is very small and out of that tiny adoption an even smaller percentage are willing to spend their bitcoins. This is why bitcoin payments are still only popular in some niche businesses like where decentralization and privacy are important like among VPN service providers.

[worle1bm]

Waiting for Amazon to integrate Bitcoin as part of their payment method is like moving a mountain and if you notice it very well, it was never on their agenda to accept Bitcoin as payment (I don't know why but it is clear that they are not planning to do add it).
Meanwhile, there is alot of alternative means of buying stuff on Amazon using Bitcoin and I don't know why some people can't just make use of it rather than barking up the wrong tree.

I have seen mountains moving at fast pace these days and it will be mere time in which you might see they adoption these modes of payments.They are big business and all they want is profit maximization for which the Bitcoin is best option.They can also go with third party payment processing services like bitpay or any other to accept these payments instead of gift coupons.They can convert it to fiat and have btc payment for customers as well.So there are some ways but yes they will adopt it soon.

[suzanne5223]

Waiting for Amazon to integrate Bitcoin as part of their payment method is like moving a mountain and if you notice it very well, it was never on their agenda to accept Bitcoin as payment (I don't know why but it is clear that they are not planning to do add it).
Meanwhile, there is alot of alternative means of buying stuff on Amazon using Bitcoin and I don't know why some people can't just make use of it rather than barking up the wrong tree.

I have seen mountains moving at fast pace these days and it will be mere time in which you might see they adoption these modes of payments.They are big business and all they want is profit maximization for which the Bitcoin is best option.They can also go with third party payment processing services like bitpay or any other to accept these payments instead of gift coupons.They can convert it to fiat and have btc payment for customers as well.So there are some ways but yes they will adopt it soon.

Crypto is full of possibilities but have you ever asked yourself is Jeff a fan of Bitcoin? Why Jeff was tight his lips when a lot of people urged the company to accept crypto as payment? Why did they give a specific reason for not accepting BTC as payment when Overstock started accepting it in the year 2014?
I don't know maybe theres a certain partnership or agreement thats prevents Amazon from accepting Bitcoin as payment but something is drawing them back.

[aysg76]

See we don't need to worry why this big company doesn't accept btc at the time because with time you will see the themselves accepting it when the world recognise it's importance.The speculation could be of volatility like it could directly affect your profits if the price crash like current happen and their profit reserves goes down.

They have their ways like gift coupons on which you can pay with any coin they accept including btc and purchase anything you like but if you want to buy something directly with it then at the time you have to wait for it.There was one speculation in the past regarding it why Amazon doesn't accept it :

One speculative theory is that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is not a fan of Bitcoin, possibly because he is opposed to its unregulated and anonymous nature. This theory gained some traction after The Washington Post, which Bezos owns, published a particularly critical article in January 2016 titled "R.I.P., Bitcoin. It's time to move on." However, this too is purely speculative

So wait for sometime you will see the news that Amazon is accepting bitcoin but till then it's fine and hold bitcoin as it's the best.

[Gozie51]

So wait for sometime you will see the news that Amazon is accepting bitcoin but till then it's fine and hold bitcoin as it's the best.

There is no doubt on that. PayPal had its own time too with not allowing bitcoin payment but it finally did. Amazon will come up with it some day just like Apple and other big institutions. Bitcoin acceptance will be smooth and effortless like El Salvador has done.

[PrimeNumber7]

We, Bitcoin supporters, oftentimes think that Bitcoin is already playing a huge role in the world of e-commerce, that it's a significant loss to international companies not to embrace Bitcoin. That is probably wrong, at least for today. It could altogether be different in the years to come. But, for now, let us be realistic and admit the fact that Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and so on do not need Bitcoin. Again, at least for now.

Hmm, I'm not quite sure. I imagine it would be beneficial for them to add another payment processor, especially when they were having problems with VISA on the platform, which I do believe has been sorted now. I actually thought that the removal of VISA payments on their platform might actually accelerate the implementation of Bitcoin payments, but it wasn't to be.

Although, aside from development costs, and potentially training support staff to help with any issues or questions, there shouldn't be too many costs, especially if they were to develop their own payment processor.

Development costs to create a payment processor is not trivial at a company like Amazon. So the estimated additional revenue would need to outweigh the development costs. Also, although Amazon developers likely spend very little of their time actually coding (developing), they don't have free time in which they have nothing to do, so devoting resources into creating a bitcoin payment processor means that some other project will need to take the back seat.

There is also an additional issue for Amazon to accept bitcoin payments. Most of the time, when I buy something from Amazon, the package will come in an Amazon box from an Amazon warehouse (sometimes, the package will be shipped directly from a third-party seller). In any case, the majority of the time, Amazon is operating only as a marketplace, not unlike the marketplace on the forum (although with many more rules and regulations, and at a much larger scale). Like the marketplace section on the forum, there is a lot of fraud, fake trades, and fake feedback. Amazon has invested a lot into weeding out that fraud, part of which includes forcing everyone who buys on Amazon to provide a real credit card. Allowing people to pay via bitcoin could potentially throw a wrench in their fraud detection models, which could be very costly, even if no fraud happens via its bitcoin customers.