Author: off-road rabbit
To say that this year's currency circle is really not smooth sailing, from the ups and downs of the currency price to the big and small news in the industry, it can be said that it has never stopped, and the most popular one is Libra. And when Libra, which was almost dead in the face of strong supervision, gradually became a trend of driving high and low, retail giant Wal-Mart began to take action on cryptocurrencies.
Recently, a document titled "System and Method for Blockchain Digital Currency" published by the US Patent and Trademark Office shows that retail giant Wal-Mart is planning to issue stable coins in pursuit of more favorable and convenient transaction methods. The document also pointed out that the stablecoin is issued based on the blockchain and has the possibility of being linked to legal tender, but it can only be used in selected retailers and designated partners.
#1 Cryptocurrency Fan
This is not the first time that Wal-Mart has promoted cryptocurrency-related patents. As early as March last year, Wal-Mart began various blockchain-based technology attempts, whether it is shortening the delivery time or launching a delivery system that can quickly track packages. , or use blockchain technology to track the food supply chain to ensure the freshness of food, etc.
Wal-Mart has been supporting the development of the cryptocurrency industry with actions. In March this year, it can be seen from the blockchain patent data of various companies released by the blockchain research company Dira. Among the seven companies accounting for half of the data, Wal-Mart Exactly one of them.
The more important reason for Wal-Mart's gradual deepening of cryptocurrencies and the removal of trust in blockchain technology is that it has to find another way in the face of strong competitors.
Wal-Mart, which has been one of the retail giants since its establishment nearly 57 years ago, is none other than Amazon. In recent years, Amazon has vigorously promoted the offline "unmanned supermarket", which makes Wal-Mart feel more crisis.
The document that Wal-Mart is preparing to launch the stable currency this time also mentioned that the encrypted currency can record the biometric characteristics of consumers such as fingerprints, eyeballs or faces one by one, that is, consumers can purchase goods and check out without guards. Obviously, this can successfully help Wal-Mart learn from Amazon to realize the vision of "unmanned supermarket".
Apart from competitors in the industry, payment methods are also one of Wal-Mart's considerations. In recent years, Visa and MasterCard have been the main online payment methods in the United States, but high card swiping fees have long been the target of public criticism. If the stable currency issued by Wal-Mart can be used as one of the payment tools to reduce users' demand for traditional bank cards, not only can the high card swiping fee be reduced, but also the price of goods can be appropriately reduced according to the reduced fee. Users and merchants are mutually beneficial, why not do it?
A new way of playing that is different from Libra
Frankly speaking, it is not uncommon for companies to issue their own stable coins. Not only Libra, but JP Morgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, also promoted JP Morgan coins in the first half of the year. However, the difference is that JPMorgan coins are limited to internal use, mainly used by JPMorgan Chase to pay wages and internal transactions, and are more private than Libra.
Unlike Facebook, which itself is at the center of the Internet whirlpool, Wal-Mart’s launch of cryptocurrency at this time is more about promoting business development and changing the industry structure. The stable currency it promotes seems to be the same as Libra's suppression and bundling of traditional currencies, but the stable currency mentioned in its patent document can only be used in retail merchants and partners selected by Walmart. It can be seen that it has the unique "supermarket chain" characteristics.
More importantly, Wal-Mart pointed out that they hope to be able to link this stable currency to the U.S. dollar, so that consumers can smoothly exchange it with the U.S. dollar when using it. This is the cleverness of Wal-Mart.
Summarize
Summarize
As one of the world's retail giants, Wal-Mart's influence is no less than that of Facebook, and the retail field is more closely related to payment than Facebook, which belongs to social software. The current situation of Libra, which has been learned from the past, is not doing well. In contrast, Wal-Mart may make faster progress.
In addition, Wal-Mart's move into the cryptocurrency payment field will play a certain role in promoting the change of the future business structure of the retail industry and the improvement of other small and medium-sized enterprises' internal transaction methods in the future.
Perhaps in the future, all companies, regardless of size, will be able to issue their own stablecoins like Walmart.
