Amazon’s Next Move On The Blockchain

A couple of years ago, very few companies wanted to acknowledge the existence of blockchain technology, this included large tech firms such as Facebook and Amazon too. Fast forward to today and finally it seems every firm and his dog are on the case, including giants like Google, Facebook and Amazon. It’s not much of a surprise is it, the blockchain promises to transform every industry that has any contact with the internet, so, it’s pretty inevitable that Amazon is now investing time and money into researching the blockchain and its implications.

Interestingly though, their latest moves aren’t directly related to e-commerce as one might expect, according to some reports, they are now exploring how the blockchain could  be used to sort and store advertising data. Advertising is a big game and is big money. Google and Facebook have built entire industries with their own digital advertising platforms, now Amazon aren’t too far behind either. Could the introduction of blockchain technology be the thing that sends them to  the top of the advertising industry too?

According to Coindesk:

“Amazon is seeking to integrate parts of its advertising business with a blockchain. The Seattle-based e-commerce giant is looking for a senior software engineer to join its Advertising FinTech team focused on a Blockchain ledger, according to a recent job posting. This new team, based in Boulder, Colorado, will be focused on billing and reconciliation systems to provide transparency on trans-national financial data, says the job description.”

By looking to employ an expert in the sector, Amazon have essentially admitted that they are investing a great amount of money and time into carrying out research in this area. Sadly this is about as much detail as we have and therefore, we can’t really tell what sort of products might be launched as a result of this. Even so though, it’s pretty exciting news isn’t it?

We should point out that this isn’t the first time Amazon has made a significant move in blockchain research, Amazon cloud has been working on this for some time now:

“It is not clear what kind of blockchain Amazon intends to use for advertising. Previously, the blockchain team at Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud business, built a proprietary blockchain known as the Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB), and AWS’ Managed Blockchain service connects with ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric.”