Amazon to accept Bitcoin? Thousands of people have petitioned CEO Jeff Bezos

An Amazon customer recently sent a petition directly to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, asking the e-commerce platform to accept Bitcoin and Litecoin as payment methods.

The petition, filed via Change.org, asks the e-commerce giant to allow cryptocurrency to be used to purchase goods.

Will Amazon listen?

The rationale behind this petition is not only to provide consumers with more payment options, but it will also allow Amazon to drive innovation and modernization in the purchasing process, as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are already accepted as a form of payment by many institutions.

The petition aims to get 1,500 supporters, and has so far received 1,438. Reddit also gave some support, with some members of the community believing that Amazon would not pay attention to the request, as Amazon has been reluctant to support cryptocurrencies in the past.

Retailers are accepting Bitcoin

Although Amazon does not currently accept Bitcoin as a payment method, other organizations in Japan have already accepted Bitcoin as a valid payment method, including airlines, hotels, etc.

In fact, as of April this year, Bitcoin has been accepted as a payment method by more than 260,000 merchants and retailers. As early as 2016, Japanese government regulators have already accepted Bitcoin as a legal currency. As Bitcoin is slowly being accepted by many institutions and even some countries, it is only a matter of time before other e-commerce companies begin to follow the trend.

Although Amazon does not officially accept Bitcoin as a payment method, some Bitcoin startups have begun to provide consumers with services that allow them to use Bitcoin to purchase Amazon products. For example, Bitcoin startup Purse.io can provide consumers with discounts on Amazon products using Bitcoin. Bitcoin startup IPayYou can also allow consumers to purchase goods and services on Amazon.

In addition, Amazon has always been very interested in Bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology. As early as 2016, Amazon AWS announced a partnership with Digital Currency Group (DCG) to create a secure experimental platform for blockchain companies.