You’re missing out on a $170 billion market. Amazon Cash is a mediocre idea that could be amazing.

Being unbanked is not only a hassle, it’s expensive. Prepaid credit cards charge high fees and some of them can’t even be used online. I’m an unbanked, Amazon addict who purchases Amazon gift cards frequently (no fee!), but I have no use for Amazon Cash.

Most major retailers have special racks filled with gift cards and Amazon is always included in the selection. If I’m already in a store that carries an Amazon gift card, the additional option of having a cashier apply funds directly to my Amazon account really isn’t that interesting. But it could be…

I would like to propose the idea of Amazon opening a gateway on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). XRPL is an open-source, global exchange for anything of value. If Amazon Cash were to be issued as a digital asset on the network, it would have much more value and utility. Not only could it be used to make purchases from Amazon, but it could be traded for other digital assets as well. While there are no limits as to what can be traded on the XRPL, gateways (like Amazon, potentially) are only responsible for redeeming their own issuances (Amazon Cash).

Many international employees and affiliates of Amazon are unbanked and receive compensation via Amazon gift cards. And many of those employees take huge pay cuts trying to exchange the gift cards for cash. Almost every other gift card in existence can be traded on an exchange, but Amazon gift cards are designed with an exclusionary feature that makes trading them very difficult and extremely risky. Because of this, Amazon employees sometimes sacrifice as much as 30% of their earnings trying to convert gift cards into cash in order to pay rent. If Amazon Cash is targeting the unbanked, which is comprised substantially of lower-income households, payment mechanisms need to be fair, practicable, and non-penalizing.

Issuing digital assets, such as Amazon Cash, on the XRPL isn’t a complicated process. From a regulatory standpoint, nothing has changed. People who buy gift cards off the rack are usually purchasing them to give to someone else. And let’s be honest, receiving a gift card isn’t the most exciting thing in the world. The demand for digital assets, however, is unparalleled to any other new asset class in history. One of the few entry points, Coinbase, an online exchange, recently reported 40,000 new registrations in a single day. Currently, there are no brick and mortar options for cash to enter the network for those wanting to purchase digital assets. Amazon Cash could become the first cash entry point into a 170 billion dollar market.

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Editing to clarify… Amazon Cash would still remain part of a closed loop system. Amazon Cash would only be redeemable for Amazon merchandise, the same as it is now. The difference is that if it were to be issued on the XRPL, it could be traded/exchanged among users of the network *before* being redeemed. Amazon Cash that I held would not be tethered to me. I would have the option of trading it for other digital assets. Amazon Cash would be just as spendable on Amazon, regardless of who was holding it.