Every day there is more news about what can, can and should happen in the world of cryptocurrencies (CC) and blockchain. There has been a lot of investment, research, and a lot of chatter, but parts and projects are still not mainstream. They have yet to deliver the explosive changes envisioned. Many ideas are discussed and developed, but none have yielded game-changing results. What may be needed is for the big players in the industry, like IBM, Microsoft, and big financial services companies, to keep pushing forward in the development of useful Blockchain applications – those whose whole world can NOT happen.
Financial services are a ripe target for Blockchain projects because today’s banking systems are still based on archaic ideas that have been faithfully and painfully digitized, and because these systems are archaic, they are expensive to maintain and maintain. to exploit. Banks have almost a good reason to charge the high service fees they do – their systems are not efficient. These systems have many redundant layers of data because everyone involved in a transaction must have their version of the transaction details. And then there’s the task of ensuring there’s a trusted third party to erase all those transactions – requiring even more versions of the same data. Blockchain technology promises to solve these problems, as each transaction will be captured in a single block on the chain, and since it is a distributed database, security and integrity are built in and ensured. It may take some time to establish trust in these new systems, given that Verifiers of Blockchain transactions are not the traditional clearinghouses that banks use and trust today. Banks’ confidence in new technology will take time, and even more time will be needed for that confidence to trickle down to consumers.
Another company that may soon be ready to give CC and Blockchain a big boost is Amazon. It looks like Amazon is getting ready to launch its own cryptocurrency. This is a company with revenue the size of a good sized country, and it is able to issue a digital token that would be fully convertible with other CCs, as well as fiat currencies . Such a move would allow Amazon to:
- issue coins (AMAZON) to reward and incentivize developers on any of its platforms
- issue coins to consumers to use for in-app purchases
- issue coins to game players for in-game purchase of virtual goodies
- issue coins to regular customers as part of a loyalty program
Amazon may have the ideal ecosystem of customers and partners to make all of this happen. Worldwide, they have about 300 million customer accounts, which is roughly the population of the United States, and they have 100,000 sellers on their platforms, with millions of items for sale. There is hardly a more traditional company than Amazon, with a massive and vibrant economy. Amazon’s impending entry into the CC world could signal the widespread adoption of blockchain technology by traditional institutions. What could be just around the corner if an AMAZON coin comes into play is like a DISNEY coin, a DELTA AIRLINES coin, a CARNIVAL CRUISES coin, a HOME DEPOT coin – you get the picture.
Stay tuned!