Decentralized finance (DeFi) has caught the attention of the world’s largest e-commerce marketplace Amazon.com. With a market capitalization of more than $1.7 trillion, the multinational technology company is hiring an expert who is passionate about blockchain and decentralized finance.
With new CEO Andy Jassy set to take the helm next month, the job posting about a “Head of Product” for the Amazon Managed Blockchain division shows that the company wants to accelerate its penetration into crypto.
Amazon’s job posting states: “Amazon Managed Blockchain (AMB) is a fully managed service that accelerates customers’ ability to create and leverage scalable blockchain technology for current and innovative business use cases across Defi, Supply Chain, Financial Services, Identity, and more. We are looking for an experienced product leader to drive the vision, roadmap, feature definition, and go-to-market strategy of the AWS product offering across the rapidly evolving and broad landscape of blockchain technology and use cases.”
While the role of the candidate is broader, the job posting hints more of a focus towards DeFi. This is clearly reflected from requirements that include “experience in decentralized finance a plus, familiarity with Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric.
What is DeFi?
The financial world saw one of the biggest revolutions of this century in the form of DeFi, a technology that helps in decentralizing the payment system and improving the mutual relationship between the two parties. In simple words, DeFi ends the role of middlemen and institutions for transaction processing and contract creation. In a centralized structure, particularly banks and other financial institutions, are required to comply with government and other legal jurisdictions before processing any transactions.
The popular blockchain network Ethereum is mostly used for building various DeFi applications, thanks to Ethereum’s smart contract ability to execute transactions when certain conditions are met.
Currently, dApps have been gaining traction due to the end of the middleman role. Gaming, betting, trading, and financial services companies are among the biggest beneficiaries and adopters of the evolving technology. dApps are becoming so important for people and businesses, with expectations that disruptive technology will make a huge impact on our daily life. With the help of Defi, one can make a direct mortgage deal and set a payment system without the need of a broker or any institution. Similarly, in betting and trading markets, along with abolishing the role of the middle man DeFi also helps in lowering the costs.
Amazon is Paying Attention to DeFi and Digital Currency
This is not the first job position from Amazon about blockchain and cryptocurrency experts. In February, the company posted blockchain and cryptocurrency experts positions amid its intention of rolling out a pilot product ‘Amazon’s Digital and Emerging Payments (DEP)’ in Mexico. Amazon plans to permit its customers to convert fiat currency into digital tokens for shopping and other purposes.
“We are looking for a leader to help us launch a new payment product starting with Mexico as our initial launch country. This product will enable customers to convert their cash into digital currency using which [sic] customers can enjoy online services including shopping for goods and/or services like Prime Video,” Amazon stated in the job posting.
It’s the fact that Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos has always given attention to disruptive technologies including artificial intelligence and cloud services. The upcoming CEO Andy Jassy, who was the CEO of Amazon Managed Blockchain Services division, would further scale technological innovations. Jeff Bezos announced to step down from the CEO role next month and Andy Jassy will take reins of the world’s online platform.
Amazon Managed Blockchain Division will Benefit from Defi
The DeFi ecosystem is exploding as investors, businesses and developers are pouring in billions of dollars in breakthrough technology. DeFi technology is now used in lending, borrowing, stablecoins, prediction markets, margin trading, payments, gaming, insurance, and NFT marketplaces. Following a sharp growth in 2020, the total value of assets locked on DeFi protocols jumped at a whopping rate of 600% this year.
Amazon doesn’t want to miss the growth opportunity. It has already adopted blockchain technology as its Managed Blockchain division is helping its customers to join or manage a public network using the popular open-source frameworks Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum. The company’s strategy of enhancing its DeFi foot-prints would further improve its customers’ ability to create and leverage scalable blockchain technology.
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