2019-05-03
Amazon Accepts CRYPTO Payments via Moon
Isn't that amazing? You can take your crypto and spend it on real-world items. You can go on a shopping spree on Amazon. I did. I tried and failed.
It's actually pretty straight forward if you think about it. You purchase an item on Amazon. And, instead of paying with your credit card, you pay directly with your crypto currency.
This is where the new app Moon comes in. It hooks itself into the payment cycle of Amazon Checkout. If you want to pay, you send any major crypto to a specific address and the payment is successful.
Here is a quick audio-less 25 seconds walkthrough. Just click on the video:
And then you get your items. In theory...
So, I tried it. I tried to buy my own book.
The book is a cookbook and Bootcamp for Ethereum Developers. It brings you from zero to hero in no time. What could be a better purchase than my own book? :)
There are several problems I ran into. Spoiler alert: none of them are technical.
Before I go into the details, here's a final screenshot of the checkout page:
This is where I stopped. I couldn't pay for it.
My first problem: I have no more Bitcoin. I only have Ether. In a hardware wallet. On my Ledger Nano.
The Moon-App currently only supports "native" payments via the Bitcoin Lighting Network.
So, no native payments for me.
But there is the other way: Connect to Coinbase. For those of you who don't know what coinbase is: It's a major crypto exchange. You can also hold your funds there.
Problem #2: I don't have a valid coinbase account. I never registered to coinbase.
In the past I very much preferred to use Binance, Kraken or Poloniex. Now I just have everything on my Ledger. So, no Coinbase.
And that's it. That's really it. I had to give up.
My Verification at Coinbase is pending since 5 hours. So I can't continue there.
I don't have any Bitcoins.
So, I couldn't buy this awesome book.
But it doesn't matter... It was still a good experience. Once I get my coinbase account approved I'll post an update in our Facebook Group!
Did you use this app?
Did you buy something with your precious cryptos?
Let me know in the comments!