Starbucks and Amazon Discuss Cryptocurrency: Expert says Could be Game Changer

What's to Make of the Growing Interest in Crypto Technology?

Cryptocurrency Finds its Way into Corporate America

Two of the biggest corporate retailers, Amazon and Starbucks, both are hinting at adopting cryptocurrency and/or blockchain into their business models. The implications of doing so far surpass the two businesses alone indicating a growing acceptance and willingness to integrate its technology for tomorrow’s marketplace.

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Crypto Expert Believes this is a Turning Point for Blockchain Technology

Roman Guelfi-Gibbs, CEO of Pinnacle Brilliance Systems Incorporated, joined The Scope Weekly on an exclusive phone interview to share his thoughts on the latest crypto news from Amazon and Starbucks. Guelfi-Gib told The Scope Weekly that people in the sector have been wanting mass adoption and looking for a “magic bullet” that could penetrate the consensus of traditional economics. Now that two of the biggest players are getting on board, “it’s a huge thing, a game changer” and believes that cryptocurrency has finally become user-friendly enough for corporations to trust in its viability. He said,

The change will be gradual…the world is slowly consolidating into using cryptocurrency.

However, he knows that this is just the beginning saying that “cryptocurrency is the future and there is already so much money being invested in the digital currency.” The Amazon Coin by itself would be fairly limited if it was restricted to merely the Amazon store but if they were to decide to “trade them on the open exchanges, the value would increase” and mass adoption would become inevitable. Roman acknowledges that government agencies are behind on digital payment structures and this could be the push needed to make blockchain flourish.

Why are Starbucks & Amazon Interested in Crypto Anyway?

Starbucks CEO, Howard Shultz, openly spoke on his distrust towards Bitcoin during an earnings conference last January but recognized the immense value of cryptocurrency. He said that only “one or a few legitimate, trusted digital currencies” will remain but Bitcoin will not be one of them. Shultz believes that the surviving coins will have to be “legitimatized by a brand in a brick-and-mortar environment, where the consumer has trust and confidence in the company that is providing the transaction.” This discussion made the crypto community certain that a digital currency was making its way into Starbucks sooner than later.

A poll conducted by LendEDU in February questioned 1000 Amazon Prime customers whether they would be interested in using Amazon’s very own virtual currency. Over 50% of the 54 million prime users exclaimed interest in what has been referred to as the “Amazon Coin.” That is a large chunk of the population expressing their enthusiasm on the idea of an Amazon cryptocurrency signaling a major attitude shift on alternative currency in the mainstream economy.

Which Cryptocurrency will Amazon & Starbucks Use?

I’m not sure if Bitcoin will fail as Shultz mentioned but he made it quite clear that he will not be using it anytime in the future. Although nothing has been set in stone, crypto experts believe that Litecoin, backed by Litepay, will be the chosen candidate for Starbucks and Amazon. This is mainly because it is designed for security and stability of user assets which are understandably the two largest concerns that prevent the idea of mass adoption. Transactions through their processor are also done free of charge. We will have to wait and see if any of this talk comes to fruition but don’t be surprised to hear big announcements on the matter later this year.


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