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Spotted at BBC News is the report that Burger King has launched a crypto-currency-like scheme in Russia called "WhopperCoin".
Customers will be able to claim one coin for every rouble (1.3p) they spend on the Whopper sandwich.
Russians will be able to buy a Whopper with the virtual cash, once they have amassed 1,700 whoppercoins.
The company said it would release Apple and Android apps next month so people could save, share and trade their wallet full of whoppercoins.
Burger King has partnered with crypto-cash start-up Waves to create and run the scheme.
The tech company will run the blockchain ledger for the coin to keep track of who has coins and what has been done with them.
Customers will be able to claim their coins by scanning a receipt with a smartphone.
The crypto-currency is a stand-alone system that has some technical similarities to Bitcoin but is distinct from it.
Also covered at Verge and CNBC, this scheme appears to be using the blockchain as a loyalty rewards scheme:
WhopperCoin transactions will be powered by Ethereum rival Waves' distributed ledger network. The blockchain platform allows users to issue and transfer custom blockchain tokens, and to trade them on an integrated peer-to-peer exchange.
The Waves Community page contains further information on this scheme.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 30 2017, @08:48AM (7 children)
Sounds more like crypto discount ticket to me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 30 2017, @08:54AM (1 child)
B-B-But it's got da blockchain!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 30 2017, @11:55AM
And electrolytes plants crave.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Wednesday August 30 2017, @12:27PM (4 children)
Sounds more like just about any kind of club membership program to me. Spend money, get some kind of free "points" (or coins in this case). That you then in turn can only use to buy more stuff at the same place you just shopped at. It's not like you can use your Whopper-coins to go and buy a Big Mac over at the competitor.
(Score: 1) by ants_in_pants on Wednesday August 30 2017, @04:51PM (2 children)
The trick is that you can trade them with people, presumably in exchange for goods or services.
You know, like a currency.
-Love, ants_in_pants
(Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday August 30 2017, @06:01PM (1 child)
That is an option, you just have to find someone then that really likes to eat at Burger King and doesn't mind swapping free coins for actual money (or items). But then this is just like a membership club card again -- I can let others accumulate points on my card or spend point from my card in exchange for other services to.
(Score: 1) by ants_in_pants on Wednesday August 30 2017, @08:45PM
It's not like there's anything inherently useful about any other currency.
-Love, ants_in_pants
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 30 2017, @07:15PM
A kind of cool thing about this is it gives the average person a way to jump on the cryptocurrency bandwagon with basically no risk. So what if your Whoppercoin gets stolen - lesson learned. When people move up to "real" cryptocurrencies they can use this experience to stay safe.