Look out Facebook, retail giant Walmart filed for a patent for a “System and Method for digital currency via blockchain” back in January, 2019. In essence, they have proposed their very own stablecoin. The abstract of the patent application states that the method of their digital currency will be equal to a regular currency, specifically the U.S. Dollar.
The method behind this digital currency is blockchain technology that will allow overlaying the digital currency unit with a customer’s purchase history which could also calculate savings and potentially apply those savings to the customer purchases, and to use its cryptocurrency for the purchase of physical goods and services.
Interestingly enough, Walmart’s stablecoin tries to address issues of low-income families and argues how cryptocurrency can help them. From the patent application reads the following:
This invention may provide an open-platform value exchange for purchases and for crowd source work. Customers may buy products for their households and may also buy products for others, deliver products to others, do crowd source work, for example, be a repair technician for a few hours, an associate for a few hours, a designated shopper. This digital currency ecosystem can be paired with a work board where customers, crowd source prospects, and others can post requests and offers for work.
It further expands to say that many low-income households where carrying cash or getting credit can be a problem, especially if they are unbanked or underserved by financial institutions and living paycheck to paycheck, they could utilize digital currency to overcome some of these challenges.
The idea for this patented digital currency is to also potentially make credit and debit cards obsolete by offering a blockchain-protected digital currency that could use pre-approved biometrics credit like an eye patter or fingerprint, which essentially makes the person their “own ‘credit card’ to their own digital value bank.”
Walmart is still quite new to blockchain technology. Back in June 2019, Crypto Trader News reported that Walmart and VeChain combined forces in a strategic partnership to track the quality and safety of food, and help assess and implement efficiencies in logistics from tracking and shipping to product and pharmaceutical provenance.
Using a digital currency, low-income households that find banking expensive, may have an alternative way to handle wealth at an institution that can supply the majority of their day-to-day financial and product needs.
