[2018] Amazon & Bitcoin: The Whole Story

Bethany Allison
Purse Blog
Published in
8 min readApr 3, 2018

Amazon bitcoin shopping and selling is becoming increasingly popular. But, how do Amazon and bitcoin work together if you can’t use your bitcoins directly on Amazon? Here you can find the answers to your questions related to bitcoin Amazon shopping, selling, etc.

Amazon Bitcoin Shopping: How do Amazon and bitcoin work together?

Understanding bitcoin Amazon transactions:

Even though Amazon bitcoin exchanges are popular, you cannot directly purchase with or trade bitcoin on Amazon. As an online marketplace with 300 million+ users, Amazon is one of the most popular places to exchange bitcoin indirectly. So how are people using Amazon and bitcoin? We are going to show you how bitcoin Amazon transactions are carried out — including how to shop on Amazon with bitcoin and how to buy Amazon gift cards with bitcoin.

Amazon bitcoin shopping: shopping with bitcoin can even save you money!

Bitcoin became a household name in 2017. Eventually, direct Amazon bitcoin transactions might be possible — but for now we compiled a list of indirect methods for carrying out bitcoin Amazon transactions. These indirect methods are all common and typically secure ways to use Amazon and bitcoin together. Some of these methods also help you save money on your Amazon purchases!

1. Buy an Amazon gift card with Bitcoin

This is probably the most well-known method used to make Amazon bitcoin purchases. There are many third party gift card sellers that accept bitcoin. Also, if you the have the time to search, many of these sites feature sales and discount offers.

Be aware that this Amazon bitcoin method may come with some added risk. In most cases, third party sellers are able to offer discounts on gift cards because people are trying to get rid of their old gift cards, and do not mind taking a discount for them (especially if they are getting bitcoin in exchange). However, sometimes a gift card might have a major discount because it was obtained through fraudulent or illegal methods. If you try to use an illegally obtained gift card, Amazon may not accept it or freeze your account. Typically, the larger the discount, the more likely it is that the gift card is illegal or a scam.

To avoid this risk, you should research the sites that you plan to buy gift cards from to make sure that they are safe and secure and always know who you are buying from.

Here are some popular, well-known sites where you can use bitcoin to buy Amazon gift cards:

Gyft

  • Gyft allows you to directly purchase Amazon gift cards with your Coinbase wallet. All you have to do is download the Gyft app. Then, you can link your Coinbase wallet and buy gift cards. There are no extra transaction fees.

eGifter

  • The first step is registering with eGifter. Then, you can buy an Amazon gift card using bitcoins. In addition, eGifter offers special discounts to users that pay with bitcoins this site. Note: This is only available in the U.S. & eGifter requires you to use the Bitpay bitcoin wallet to process transactions.

Bitpay

  • To use this, you must use Bitpay’s bitcoin wallet. If you use Bitpay as your bitcoin wallet, then you can apply for the Bitpay Visa Card. After receiving the Bitpay Visa Card, you can instantly load dollars from your bitcoin wallet onto the card. The Bitpay card is basically like a debit card, which you can use to shop on Amazon.
  • There are other good bitcoin debit cards available, but this is one of the most popular options. When selecting a card, you might want to check to see if there are any transaction fees. The Bitpay card is nice because there are no transaction fees on purchases made in the U.S. However, there is a $2.00 transaction fee when you withdraw money from an ATM. Amazon bitcoin shopping can be faster with a bitcoin debit card.
  • Or you can just buy Amazon gift cards directly from the Bitpay wallet. The Bitpay wallet does not add-on any extra fees for bitcoin transactions. Furthermore, this is a fast and convenient way to buy Amazon gift cards.

Local Bitcoins

  • This site is a peer-to-peer trading site, in which you can exchange bitcoin for Amazon gift cards. One downside is that peer-to-peer transactions place you at a greater risk for being scammed. The site claims that there are over 110k active traders using its site in over 249+ countries.
  • First, sign-up. Then, you can search for another seller offering Amazon gift card codes for your bitcoins. The site claims that transactions between users are “instant” so you should receive your gift card as soon as you pay the seller.
  • You can also search for someone that is willing to exchange their bitcoins for your Amazon gift card code.
  • To decrease your chances of being scammed, look at the seller ratings. Also, you should ask the seller for a cash receipt (gift cards purchased with cash cannot be easily reversed like a credit card purchase). For more advice on picking a reputable seller, check-out this helpful article.

This is why gift cards are the most popular method for indirectly carrying-out bitcoin Amazon transactions. As you can see, it is pretty easy to use your bitcoins to purchase an Amazon gift card from one of these sites.

2. Use Amazon gift cards to trade/buy bitcoin
If you are searching for a way to buy bitcoins, then you can use your Amazon gift cards. This is a pretty easy Amazon bitcoin purchasing method.

Paxful

  • Paxful is another peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace, so you should spend time learning about the marketplace and the person you’re transacting with before making your first purchase. It is recommended that you research the seller and look at their ratings before making a transaction. Paxful claims that there are over 300 ways to purchase bitcoin on its site — you can also use a your bank account or credit/debit cards. Some transactions may not be instant because they require ID verification.
  • On Paxful, you can exchange Amazon gift cards for bitcoin or you can use bitcoin to buy Amazon gift cards. If you are trading bitcoin for a gift card, it is recommended that you ask the other seller for a picture of their cash receipt (since gift cards paid with a credit card can be reversed, it is better to trade for gift cards that were paid in cash). Then, make sure that the gift card code matches the cash receipt. You can also login to Amazon and use Amazon’s gift card checker to make sure that the gift card is valid. Taking these precautions will make trading on Paxful more secure and safe!

Paybis

  • A major benefit of using Paybis is that it is not a peer-to-peer trading site. All transactions are carried-out directly through Paybis. ID verification is only required the first time you use the site. Then, all transactions are instant.
  • Note: Paybis only accepts physical Amazon gift cards that have been purchased within the U.S. with cash (this is done to prevent credit card fraud).
  • The following states are excluded from using Paybis: NY, GA, CT, NM, WA, HI.
  • Steps: Create an account. Then, enter the gift card amount and upload pictures of both the gift card & cash receipt.

3. Purse, of course:

  • On Purse, you can earn bitcoin by using your extra Amazon balance (or any other payment method that Amazon also accepts) to purchase items on someone’s Amazon wishlist. Once they receive their order, your bitcoin payment will be released from escrow.
  • Purse does not charge any extra transaction/processing fees for the earner.
  • The Purse bitcoin wallet is free.
  • Just register with the site to start earning bitcoin!
  • And if you have bitcoin and wish to buy on Amazon, then Purse is one of the best ways to go because you can score major discounts on Amazon purchases without having to worry about the supplier on the other end.
  • How-to use Purse receive discounts on Amazon:
    (1) Sign-up with Purse.
    (2) Find the product you’re looking, or paste in an Amazon Product URL or Wishlist URL.
    (3) Set the discount that you wish to receive.
    (4) If you do not want to wait for a bitcoin earner to fill your order, then Purse can fill it immediately at 5% off.

Purse gives you a great discount for shopping with your bitcoins, an incentive to spend your cryptocurrency.

4. Bonus: Check-out this Purse article on how to “Snag Free and Cheap Amazon Gift Cards to Save Money”. You can use the gift cards you earn to exchange for bitcoin on sites like Purse!

Amazon and bitcoin: See how easy it is to make bitcoin Amazon transactions?

You can use Bitcoin to buy stuff on Amazon, even if indirectly.

The use of both Amazon and bitcoin is growing — and Amazon has become a major vehicle for shopping and earning bitcoins. Since you cannot directly use bitcoin on Amazon, many people wonder how bitcoin Amazon transactions work. Hopefully this post made it clear that bitcoin Amazon transactions are getting easier. As you can see, Amazon bitcoin shopping and trading can be a good way to spend your bitcoins — so why not give it a try?

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