Is Amazon Looking For A Place In The Cryptocurrency Market?

Amazon was spotted registering three web domains tied to the cryptocurrency business, giving birth to rumors that the cloud and retail giant plans to be active in this domain. Still, a lot of questions regarding the subject have yet to receive answers, says Fortune.

Renewing their interest in cryptocurrencies

Amazon’s legal department took control on Tuesday over amazonethereum.com, amazoncryptocurrency.com, and amazoncryptocurrencies.com, but nobody knows why. The American multinational electronic commerce company already has amazonbitcoin.com, obtained in 2013, but the address now automatically forwards to Amazon’s main site. As far as it goes for the other three sites, the domains don’t serve up anything yet.

However, a first hint on Amazon’s plans came on Wednesday, when a dude called Byron Wiebe also registered amazonripple.com, which forwards to the website for the Ripple cryptocurrency. This could mean that the company with its headquarters in Seattle is looking to lockd own its cryptocurrency-related domains, seeking to end this type of habits that violate the company’s trademark.

Amazon Pay vice president Patrick Gauthier said last month that the company has no intention of accepting payments in digital currency, due to a lack of demand. An understandable decision, considering the fact that Bitcoin hasn’t yet proved a trustworthy payment currency, but rather a speculative asset.

A subtle hint at the retailer’s interest in Ethereum?

Of course, we can’t overlook the fact that Amazon’s move could have something to do with mining cryptocurrencies in its cloud. Cryptocurrency mining is a scarily energy-intensive activity, so seems plausible that a company with Amazon’s resources could have found a way to mine smarter.

Amazon’s purchase got us to also think at Ethereum. Sure, is not that appreciated in value as Bitcoin is, but is second in command. However, Joseph Lubin, one of Ethereum’s co-founders, gave last week part of the answer. He said that the brand is looking to build a decentralized competitor to Amazon.