This really rewards Amazon more than anyone else in the ecosystem. Let's see:
1) You have to buy these "Virtual Currencies" and since they can only be used within the ecosystem and cannot be reversed, you will be psychologically attuned to, spend it or lose it all.
2) Amazon now doesn't have to hiccup 50c or so for every small credit card transaction.
3) Amazon could now theoretically avoid paying sales tax because the real currency was only used to buy something intangible which can be bartered for something else.
Point 3 is extremely interesting. There is a lot of controversy going on about their sales tax collection[0]. I say that it is interesting because it gives an incentive to the customer to use their virtual money instead of traditional payment methods. Other advantages I see (or that you saw) only benefit Amazon, which only gets mild sympathies from most users. I am not sure this will have such a great impact however, because unless they find a loophole to sell those coins, the first sale would still be subject to any applicable tax.
1) You have to buy these "Virtual Currencies" and since they can only be used within the ecosystem and cannot be reversed, you will be psychologically attuned to, spend it or lose it all.
2) Amazon now doesn't have to hiccup 50c or so for every small credit card transaction.
3) Amazon could now theoretically avoid paying sales tax because the real currency was only used to buy something intangible which can be bartered for something else.