Amazon releases Amazon Coins... reactions?

[ShadowOfHarbringer]

We should bum rush Amazon with emails about why they use Amazon Coins, but not bitcoin.  I do buy stuff from Amazon, but if they took BTC, they would make it my primary shopping site.

No we shouldn't. The customer base of bitcoin users is still WAAAAAAAY too tiny for them to give a fuck. Plus they'll be in the business of selling AmazonCoins themselves directly. For them to use Bitcoin, they would have to consider how to sell it themselves, and somehow I don't think Amazon has interest in being in the exchange business.

My message to Amazon is... You can use BTC or not. I will be using bitcoin regardless of your decision.

Who cares ? I don't know, but i know that Amazon doesn't.

[Mike Christ]

On a similar note, I got a gift card to Target last Christmas.  I traded it to a friend who was nice enough to take it off my hands for as much as it's worth.  I don't shop at Target much, but I guess he does.

I believe amazon coin will work about the same way.  Apparently it's mostly for Kindle.  As long as you can trade it between Kindle owners, it can definitely be used alongside Bitcoin.  Swap out coin for coin.

[bowen151]

How great would it be if it was an acutal cryptocoin with all the bells and whistles ( and flaws )...: 51% anyone?

I like that they have called them amazon coins, im surprised they havent implemented something along these lines a bit sooner though!

[ShadowOfHarbringer]

I think that this situation is quite useful for Bitcoin for 2 reasons.

1. It disperses attention of governments & banks so that they now will have go after 2 targets.
2. It may pave the way for all alternative currencies into the current system

I wonder if Amazon will take this "coin thing" further, making it a real currency, not just a gift card system.

[Rassah]

I think that this situation is quite useful for Bitcoin for 2 reasons.

1. It disperses attention of governments & banks so that they now will have go after 2 targets.
2. It may pave the way for all alternative currencies into the current system

I wonder if Amazon will take this "coin thing" further, making it a real currency, not just a gift card system.

1. Amazon's thing is no different from iTunes credits, Facebook credits, or Xbox Live points. There are plenty of non-targets out there, but Bitcoin is completely unique, still being a target all on it's own.
2. Amazon's thing is not a currency. Unless Amazon does something drastic, I doubt this will pave the way for anything, any more than Xbox points did. The closest privately owned currency that Bitcoin comes to is SecondLife's Linden dollars, and those got slapped with so much regulations that they never got a chance to pave the way to anything.

[TTBit]

Maybe Amazon has future plans to let you buy a limited selection of intangible products with bitcoins and is using this as a buffer so if they run into legal trouble.  So you could buy amazon coins with BTC. In event of legal snags they can isolate and "throw out amazon coins" and BTC with the bath water, but if it takes off and establishes legitimacy, they can simply expand it to be useful for all goods and have a head start on the market!

When you're a company concerned that you'll be enabling all kinds of horrible things by giving people a way for people to turn anonymous illegally-gotten money into goods and services, it sounds far less sinister when the only things you're allowing people to buy are intangible copies of intellectual property items that the evil people of the world could arguably just pirate anyway.  When you're taking bitcoins for music, movies, and e-books, it's hard for someone to argue you're helping black-hat criminals, because these criminals don't pay for these in the first place, right?  They jailbreak, crack, torrent, and pirate music and books.  It's mind numbingly brilliant if this has anything to do with Amazon's future plans to differentiate themselves as innovators.

I like it. Amazon grants power to an amazon subsidiary to issue amazon coins. This subsidiary deals with the banking part. Legal problems would not be on amazon.