Burger King Now Has Its Own Cryptocurrency - the 'Whoppercoin' - in Russia (fortune.com)

An anonymous reader quotes Fortune:According to New York Magazine (via local Russian news reports), the Russian subdivision of Burger King has launched its own cryptocurrency, aptly called "Whoppercoin"... For each Whopper burger customers purchase, they'll receive one Whoppercoin in a special cryptocurrency wallet. While the coins' wider use is unclear, some reports suggest that the Whoppercoin will be accepted as payment at Burger Kings across Russia... Burger King has reportedly issued one billion Whoppercoin tokens to date on Waves Platform, though it is possible that there will be more to come.
Burger King Russia is now also reportedly accepting bitcoin as a form of payment.

Comments

What is a currency?

[Anonymous Coward]

If this is only good for buying from Burger King, is it really a currency? Isn't it more of an electronic coupon? Unless there's a wider usage for this, it seems to be a publicity stunt (like the OK, Google ads) and an incorrect use of the word 'currency.'

Re:What is a currency?

[WheezyJoe]

Article doesn't say. At best it suggests maybe this "currency" will be redeemable at other Russian Burger Czars... Kings.
Suspiciously short article, suspiciously short on facts or even news. Hints maybe that Burger Putins might also accept bitcoin, but again, nothing said for sure. Stupid article.

Re:What is a currency?

[WheezyJoe]

A czar is an emperor, not a king.

I stand corrected, thank you. Burger Emperor. I want in, I think there's potential there.

Re: What is a currency?

[alvinrod]

Sure it's a currency. It's value is tied to the Whopper (or some other goods at their stores) and as long as Burger King will honor in trade for a Whopper them they hold value.

Otherwise they hold no more or less value than paper dollars outside of most people being willing to accept dollars. The ultimate value of a dollar is that governments require payment of taxes using them so everyone eventually needs some. Otherwise I am no more obligated to accept dollars for something in trade than I am to accept Burger King's currency. But if I were selling a car, I could choose to accept payment in the form of some number of these crypto coins just as easily. If I then trade them with someone else for a TV, they are functionally no different than currency other than these coins may be pegged to the Whopper, so these are more like a gold (or other commodity-backed) currency than most government fiat currencies that exist.

There also probably isn't a whole lot of trust in this currency at this point so I don't think it will be used for large transactions and holders may have to trade them to others unfavorably compared to other currencies due to their more limited utility.

Re:What is a currency?

[sittingnut]

if this is "currency", then so are loyalty points, frequent-flyer miles, etc, etc, and such.

Re:What is a currency?

[unixisc]

True. OTOH, if one can live only on Burger King's meals, it's real enough for a big portion of their expenses.

Re: What is a currency?

[GrumpySteen]

these are more like a gold (or other commodity-backed) currency than most government fiat currencies that exist.

Except these seem to be backed by saturated fat and sodium, which makes it odd that they were launched in Russia instead of the USA.

Re: What is a currency?

[alvinrod]

Most coupons expire and are destroyed upon use, so it's quite clear that they don't like like other traditional currencies in a lot of ways. A person could still trade a $10-off coupon for something else, so there are some similarities, but I don't think you took the time to think about why coupons might not be currency, whereas something like Burger King's crypto coin might meet that definition more easily.

If you want to know why most coupons have that small print of being worth some tiny fraction of a cent, you may want to look into the history of trading stamps. The quick answer is because of various state laws, so nation-wide chains will add that to coupons in order to comply with century old laws that exist in certain states. Some of these laws were also later applied to coupons as well once they became more popular and widely used, hence the same tiny fraction of cash value.

The inability to use the coupons elsewhere would defeat the purpose of a currency.

While the ease of use of a currency is why people use it in place of something else, you wouldn't get very far in the United States trying to pay with Euros, yet they are still no doubt currency. The same applies with U.S. dollars in many other parts of the world, but you won't argue that U.S. dollars aren't a currency for that reason. The issue is that these crypto coins are just accepted in far fewer places, so they lack the same utility as most currencies. The only advantage they possibly hold though is the guarantee of being redeemable for a Whopper (or whatever other products they may be good for) and if Burger King were to refuse to do that their value would collapse quickly. However, if other businesses also start accepting them as a form of payment, then they become much more like the Euro, the U.S. dollar, or other various government issued currencies in terms of utility.

Re:What is a currency?

[ClickOnThis]

Exactly. The companies that run loyalty programs typically have rules against selling or exchanging such points with third parties, unless they allow it explicitly. If these points were a true currency, the issuer would not restrict their use.

Re:What is a currency?

[PolygamousRanchKid]

OTOH, if one can live only on Burger King's meals, it's real enough for a big portion of their expenses.

Anyone can live only on Burger King's meals . . . it's just a question of how long you'll live.

Re:What is a currency?

[unixisc]

That's irrelevant. Point is not having to starve to death. And avoid the fries, if one wants to avoid the fats.

Re:What is a currency?

[ChromeAeonium]

I wonder what the exchange rate for Woppercoin to Chuck E. Cheese tickets is?

Re: What is a currency?

[king neckbeard]

This is an interesting case, because presumably, Burger King can manipulate the supply. Also, if the currency is tied to the menu prices, then you've basically got a food backed currency.

Re: What is a currency?

[hackwrench]

A czar an Emperor and a king are three different things.

Re: What is a currency?

[Anonymous Coward]

Specifically, a czar is a title of a specific emperor - Caesar. The Slavic languages dont use that dipthing though so they simple made it seezar. Czar.

#truthiness

Re: What is a currency?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think of 2 different currencies: a dollar bill circa 1888, and one Japanese ryo circa 1660.

The dollar bill could be exchanged for a quantity of gold. Does that not make it a coupon? The Japanese Ryo could be traded for 1 years rice for one person. At the time that amounted to about 270 L of rice. Being able to trade a currency for food is therefore not unprecedented.

Congrats, Burger King Russia!

[Opportunist]

You just reinvented the coupon.

But I guess calling it a cryptocurrency is better for PR.

Re:Congrats, Burger King Russia!

[Kjella]

You just reinvented the coupon. But I guess calling it a cryptocurrency is better for PR.

If it's one non-transferable whoppercoin discount per purchase, then yes. If you can buy/sell/transfer whoppercoins to other wallets and pay entirely in whoppercoins without restrictions, it's a quasi-currency.

Re:Congrats, Burger King Russia!

[SCVonSteroids]

Kind of like Canadian Tire money, I believe?

Re:Congrats, Burger King Russia!

[Opportunist]

How are coupons non-transferable. Here, take my coupon book. Presto, transfer complete!

Re: Congrats, Burger King Russia!

[louden obscure]

Or maybe Ricky's hash coins.

since BK calls what they serve "food"

[turkeydance]

they can call their coupon "Whoppercoin"

How does the proof-of-work aspect work?

[Anonymous Coward]

So with Bitcoin there's the proof-of-work aspect that's done by wasting a huge amount of energy generating hashes. But what's the equivalent with this proprietary, custom blockchain? Does Burger King have computers spinning their wheels generating hashes?

Re:How does the proof-of-work aspect work?

[mikael]

Well, if you use solar panels to power your mining rig, then you can earn SolarCoins at the same time.

Commodity fetishism to the next level

[fubarrr]

Uncle Lenin will be proud

white paper

[religionofpeas]

So, where's the white paper where we can read the technical details of this coin ? Or is just some nonsensical fluff piece with no other purpose than to promote Burger King ?

My computer is ready

[Presence Eternal]

Hey, pay me five bucks a day and I'll hash whatever the hell you want.

The important question is

[nospam007]

Can we mine our whoppers at home?

In Soviet Russia...

[Squiff]

Burger king pays you in bitcoin

economist

[bugs2squash]

what's it' worth on the big mac index ?

Re:economist

[infolation]

and what's the current MACD of the whoppercoin?

This is why this won't work

[slashmydots]

A brand new crypto with its own blockchain, yay. What's the golden rule of cryptocurrencies? You can't fake a transaction or steal bitcoins with a false transaction unless you can outprocess the entire rest of the network consistently to mine and verify your own block all by yourself. I know of a couple thousand people or so that could individually outprocess what is likely their pathetic little room full of a couple GPUs. In fact, my rig probably could. JUST USE BITCOINS, YOU IDIOTS.

Re:This is why this won't work

[sheramil]

A brand new crypto with its own blockchain, yay. What's the golden rule of cryptocurrencies?

The value will rise and fall at random, albeit with rumors that Russian gangsters / George Soros / 4chan / The illuminati are manipulating it, there will be three or four incidences of someone stealing - reportedly - billions of dollars worth of them, destabilizing the whole system, and ultimately people will forget about them until years later a story surfaces (on slashdot, naturally) where someone has five hundred million Whoppercoins and they try to redeem them all at the same time, and people have a hearty chuckle before forgetting it all again.

stop inventing new names for practically unchnged

[mapkinase]

Stop inventing new names for practically unchanged old concepts. I am tired of this shit.

Central banck

[manu0601]

At lease, here is a cryptocurrency backed by real economy assets: burgers. It is weird to think of a fast food chain as the central bank, though.

Re:Cat got your tongue?

[sheramil]

That is *not* cyrptocurrency, if I am not wrong when I get a Bitcoin I can buy *anything* with it, everywhere.

You are wrong. You can't buy anything with it, everywhere. You can't even buy a Whopper with it.