North American retail giant Walmart is looking to toe the digital currency waters, outlining a digital currency and cryptocurrency-specific role in a new job ad.
Walmart Wants To Hire Someone To Lead Its Digital Currency And Cryptocurrency Initiatives
Posted on Walmart’s career page, the new role seeks a visionary leader to develop the firm’s digital currency strategy as well as a product roadmap.
The job posting reads in part:
“We are seeking a visionary leader who has a history of leading and scaling businesses. You will have a proven track record of building innovative solutions to customer problems by leveraging new technologies and consumer insights.”
The new Walmart digital currency lead will identify technologies and customer trends and convert them into product requirements. Additionally, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based would-be hire will identify cryptocurrency-related investments and partnerships. Notably, it doesn’t mention specific products or partnerships that the role would work on.
The application requires a set of industry-related qualifications, including “experience with the cryptocurrency ecosystem and related technologies, and functional knowledge of the cryptocurrency ecosystem and players involved”.
Surging Interest In Cryptocurrency
Walmart’s job listing indicates that the mega-corp may be taking a more serious look at the crypto space. Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, have grown in popularity in recent years, resulting in more merchant and institutional adoption — Walmart, Apple, Amazon, are only a handful of mega-corporations who have their fingers into cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.
In 2019, Walmart filed a patent for a blockchain-based US dollar-pegged digital currency that was similar to the Facebook-backed stablecoin Libra (since renamed to Diem). Today’s job posting is the most explicit reference that the retailer has made to the possibility of creating a crypto solution, though it’s unclear whether Walmart is considering launching its own digital currency with the new position.
Notably, Walmart does not currently allow bitcoin payments. But would it come as a surprise, with companies such as PayPal, eBay allowing customers to pay for real-world products in crypto? If it happens, Walmart’s crypto integration would kick-start the next leg of adoption among retail giants and mainstream adoption in general.
via ZyCrypto