Retail giant Walmart is "testing the waters" and is hiring a cryptocurrency product manager

This article is from Crypto News Flash, original author: BHUSHAN AKOLKAR

Odaily Planet Daily Translator | Nian Yinsi Tang Walmart, the largest physical store retailer in the United States, is getting involved in the field of cryptocurrency. The retail giant has published a job posting, planning to recruit a person in charge of cryptocurrency products.

Walmart’s move is not surprising, as it comes at a time when major retailers and large companies around the world are looking to offer crypto payment options. Online payment giant PayPal has previously entered the field and has achieved considerable growth through this crypto ambition.

Walmart's job posting is as follows:

“As the Head of Digital Currency/Cryptocurrency at Walmart, you will be responsible for developing the digital currency strategy and product roadmap. As an expert in digital currency/cryptocurrency and blockchain-related technologies, you will drive the vision for the product and capability roadmap. You will provide leadership to identify technology and customer trends and the investments needed to build on them.”

The person in charge of this position will also be responsible for driving Walmart’s retail and digital currency strategies. In addition, establishing crypto-related partnerships will be a key part of the role’s responsibilities.

Walmart isn’t the only company bullish on the prospects of cryptocurrencies.

In July, London business newspaper CityAM quoted an Amazon insider as saying that Amazon plans to accept Bitcoin payments by the end of 2021. She said that accepting Bitcoin payments is to create conditions for Amazon's entire cryptocurrency payment system, "which is an integral part of Amazon's future operating mechanism," and "the entire project is almost ready." In addition to accepting Bitcoin payments, Amazon may launch its own cryptocurrency as early as 2022. The market responded immediately to this major positive news.

However, Amazon quickly issued a clarification. An Amazon spokesperson said, "While we are interested in the cryptocurrency space, the speculation surrounding our specific plans for cryptocurrency is untrue. We remain focused on exploring what this will look like for customers shopping on Amazon."

But like its main competitor Walmart, Amazon posted a job posting in late July seeking a head of digital currency and blockchain products. The position is located in Seattle, Washington, and will work within Amazon's payment acceptance and experience team. An Amazon spokesperson told CNBC:

“We are inspired by the innovation happening in the cryptocurrency space and are exploring what this might look like at Amazon. We believe the future will be built on new technologies that enable modern, fast, and cheap payments, and we want to bring that future to Amazon customers as quickly as possible.”

Walmart’s experiments in fintech

Like several other companies, Walmart is not willing to lag behind in cryptocurrency adoption and is taking a relatively comprehensive approach to making the most of the fintech revolution.

Two years ago, according to a patent application, Walmart may be working on issuing a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, which is intended to help low-income families find an alternative to the high cost of banks. The document outlines a method of "generating a digital currency unit by pegging a digital currency unit to a conventional currency", that is, a stablecoin pegged to a fiat currency. The document adds that this blockchain-based digital currency "may be pegged to the US dollar" and may also be "only available in selected retailers or partners." This sounds similar to Facebook's planned cryptocurrency Libra (now renamed Diem), which is designed to serve people without bank accounts. However, considering various regulatory restrictions, Walmart has not taken active actions in this area.

Walmart, on the other hand, is also experimenting with how to make the most of distributed ledger technology. It has been working on adopting some non-financial solutions throughout the supply chain, such as food and drug transactions.

In addition, Walmart hopes to build its own "Super App" through its fintech startup Hazel, which will target a broader financial services ecosystem including loans, bank accounts, digital payments, and more.