Just a few days ago, the giant retail company Walmart announced the patents for future stablecoin. The planned coin will be backed by US dollars. Analysts compare Walmart’s future coin with Facebook’s Libra. They especially stress one of the main features these two coins share. Namely, the ability to operate outside of their native retail scope.
Features of Walmart’s Future Stablecoin
The advantage of any project that Walmart launches is in the fact that it has a large coverage. Walmart reportedly has 11,368 hypermarkets in 27 countries worldwide. Whatever happens in Walmart spreads across the globe.
In its patent filing, Walmart reportedly stated that the creators of their coin would be Robert Cantrell, David Nelms, John O’Brien, and Brian McHale. The abstract states the following:
“[The] method includes generating one digital currency unit by tying the one digital currency unit to a regular currency; storing information of the one digital currency unit into a block of a blockchain; buying or paying the one digital currency unit.”
As well as:
“The digital currency may be pegged to the US dollar and available for use only at selected retailers or partners. In other embodiments, the digital currency is available for use anywhere. The digital currency can provide a fee-free, or fee-minimal place to store wealth that can be spent, for example, at retailers and, if needed, easily converted to cash.”
The Main Advantage of Walmart’s Stablecoin
Apart from its wide coverage, the planned coin will reportedly offer very low fees. Additionally, that coin should provide for easy conversion to to cash.
Moreover, maybe the main advantage of this future Walmart coin is the fact it would flatter the households with low income. The families that fall under this category often find banking fees too high. This is where the Walmart coin comes in. It offers alternative ways to deal with assets. Furthermore, we should all keep in mind that Walmart provides most of the products every household need on daily basis. If we combine the low fees with available necessities, we get the winning combination.
Furthermore, Walmart’s coin should also pride itself with many other characteristics. Some of them are: “pre-approved biometric credit”, storing the user’s transactions history, or allowing for loyalty points. Additionally, there are predictions that Walmart coin could offer interest on savings accounts. This was sparked by the official announcement stating:
“The savings can be greater when the customer buys goods that are on their shopping history and are therefore predicted.”
Behind the Scenes of Stablecoin Announcement
Before announcing the plans to develop the coin, Walmart tried to enter the banking system by opening bank branches. However, many opposed to this and the project failed. The analysts stated that this was Walmart’s attempt to become an industrial loan company. This plan faced massive opposition. On the other hand, a company “Target” managed to get an approval to operate as an industrial loan company.
Nevertheless, Walmart kept its focus on payment processing that spread to supply chain management. Simultaneously, Walmart worked on development of blockchain. Now that the network is ready, the next step is to launch the native currency. Obviously, with a strong brand behind it, the future coin will aim high.
Do you trust Walmart to do good with its stablecoin?
