Amazon Reportedly Delays NFT Marketplace Debut Due To Technical, Commercial Issues

While reports earlier this month suggested that e-commerce giant Amazon is already putting finishing touches to its soon-to-launch NFT Marketplace, a new report claimed that the supposed launch scheduled this Spring might be delayed because of technical and commercial issues.

A few weeks ago, the Non-Fungible Token sector anticipated that Amazon's NFT marketplace would launch on April 24, 2023, with the platform providing the service to U.S. customers first and eventually to customers in other countries.

Now, new claims surfaced online, offering a new timeline for the launch of the NFT initiative.

Instead of April, the NFT Marketplace is set to launch on May 15 because the team is reportedly not yet ready due to some technical and commercial challenges, Web3 media Big Whale reported, citing a source close to the initiative as the source of information.

The e-commerce giant initially planned to begin offering 15 NFT collections on its launch but it turns out that there would be 80 collections available during the debut. Among the NFT collections available on Amazon NFT Marketplace include Bored Ape, Mutant Ape, the World of Women collection, Beeple, and Pudgy Penguins.

Aside from the NFT Collections, Blockworks, citing a "confidential terms of service agreement," reported earlier this month that the NFT Marketplace will run on a private and permissioned (distributed ledger that is not publicly accessible) blockchain which Amazon controls.

The report also mentioned that the blockchain powering the NFT initiative of the e-commerce giant is not only gas-less but also read-only, which means it allows a user to view the balance and transaction history of a particular address or wallet without having the private keys required to spend or move the funds.

Additionally, the blockchain features strict restrictions not only on NFT creators but also on partners and eventually on Amazon NFT marketplace customers post-launch.

The outlet also reported that the e-commerce giant has informed its product partners that Web3 and NFT company Artifact Labs and the exclusive members-only NFT community Proof Collective would be involved in the initiative, aside from Pudgy Penguins' creator Beeple who will be a day-one partner of the project.

Despite the plethora of claims surrounding the supposed Amazon NFT Marketplace, the e-commerce giant remained tight-lipped on the subject. It has also reportedly imposed a strict non-disclosure agreement with current and possible Web3 partners to keep everything under wraps.