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The Almighty Buck Businesses

Burger King Now Has Its Own Cryptocurrency - the 'Whoppercoin' - in Russia (fortune.com) 63

Posted by EditorDavid from the dollar-menus dept.
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.
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Burger King Now Has Its Own Cryptocurrency - the 'Whoppercoin' - in Russia More

Burger King Now Has Its Own Cryptocurrency - the 'Whoppercoin' - in Russia

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  • What is a currency? (Score:1, Insightful)

    by 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.'

    • 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.

    • 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

      • 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.

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

      • 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.

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

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

      • 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.

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

  • Congrats, Burger King Russia! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Saturday August 26, 2017 @09:48AM (#55089311)

    You just reinvented the coupon.

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

  • since BK calls what they serve "food" (Score:4)

    by turkeydance ( 1266624 ) on Saturday August 26, 2017 @09:49AM (#55089319)
    they can call their coupon "Whoppercoin"

  • How does the proof-of-work aspect work? (Score:1)

    by 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?

  • Uncle Lenin will be proud

  • white paper (Score:3)

    by religionofpeas ( 4511805 ) on Saturday August 26, 2017 @09:55AM (#55089347)

    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 ?

  • In Italy they use woppocoins.

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

  • Can we mine our whoppers at home?

  • Burger king pays you in bitcoin
  • what's it' worth on the big mac index [wikipedia.org] ?
  • 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.

    • 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 hea

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

  • 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.

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