By
Tolu Ajiboye
June 14th, 2023
Burger King has announced launching its own cryptocurrency in Russia called ‘WhopperCoin’.
Burger King is ready to enter cryptocurrency market through launching its own cryptocurrency in Russia called ‘WhopperCoin’.
This cryptocurrency will be like a reward to the customer who buys the Whopper. It means that every customer can earn one Whopper Coin for every rouble he spends for Whopper’s purchase.
Additional opportunity is to change WhopperCoins for the Whopper after the customer collects 1,700 WhopperCoins.
Ivan Shestov, head of external communications at Burger King Russia, is sure that WhopperCoin launching is a great possibility for people who simple buy burgers to become investors.
He said: “Now Whopper is not only burger that people in 90 different countries love – it’s an investment tool as well. According to the forecasts, cryptocurrency will increase exponentially in value. Eating Whoppers now is a strategy for financial prosperity tomorrow.”
The Burger King’s Whopper became the main topic of the news not for the first time. The Whopper was the subject of discussions in April 2017 because Burger King Whopper forced Google home IoT devices to advertise the burger.
A digital currency platform created by Ethereum rival Waves Platform will be used for the WhopperCoin. Max Pertsovskiy, the chief business development officer of Waves Platform, said: “We are glad that Burger King Russia has chosen Waves as a platform for its loyalty program launch and WhopperCoin distribution. We are sure that this decision will promote blockchain technology in Russia and will enable the promotion of its benefits and possibilities for a wide audience.”
The blockchain platform allows users to issue and transfer custom blockchain tokens, and to trade them on the exchange online. Moreover, Waves announced that it had already generated 1bn WhopperCoin for using.
Next step for Burger King in order to spread cryptocurrency is to release iOS and Android apps that will allow customers to distribute their Whopper Coins easy. It should be done in next months.
While a lot of Burger King’s customers and people involved in the sphere of cryptocurrency market see only positive prospects and results of WhopperCoin launching, some people have doubt in this respect.
Dr Garrick Hileman, research fellow at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, don’t believe that other big corporations will accept and use Burger King’s crypto-currency. “I don’t imagine McDonald’s will be quick to allow someone to pay for a Big Mac with their whoppercoins,” he said. “Burger King’s competitors are more likely to accept an independent crypto-currency like bitcoin.”
Emin Gun Sirer, an associate professor at Cornell University and a director at the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts, stumbled that WhopperCoin launching as a reward was the best way. He warned that cryptocurrency could be used for money laundering and ransomware payments. “This will undoubtedly happen,” he said.
