Chairman of the Board of Directors of Starbucks Howard Schultz said that his coffee network plans to include blockchain and digital currencies in his long-term strategy of payment technology, and also hopes to "expand digital relationships with customers."
Schulz, however, does not believe that bitcoin will be part of this strategy. He does not think that the first cryptocurrency "is currency now and will be in the future".
Our top trading bots
He specified that Starbucks does not develop a digital currency and will not invest in blockchain and cryptocurrency, but the company will use its position to make people more trust in these technologies.
He added:
I believe that we are moving into a new era in which a very serious digital currency, applicable to consumer needs, can appear due to the blockchain. Starbucks, he said, is in a unique situation, allowing to benefit from these changes. In our opinion, we have something to offer to companies that work in this area, since our position allows us to create a full-fledged platform where this technology will be solved and, moreover, will be able to take advantage of the already existing digital platform for mobile payments.
The platform that Schultz speaks about is the Starbucks mobile payment application, which was launched in 2015 and allows you to buy / order products of the company through a mobile device, simultaneously receiving various awards.
Mobile payments account for about a third of Starbucks' transactions in the US, and Schultz is considering the option of opening non-cash stores in the US.
This is not the first time that Starbucks is trying to use advanced payment technology. For example, in the fall of 2012 the company made Square its exclusive transaction operator for debit and credit cards, but later the companies ceased to cooperate.
Recall that earlier in one of the Argentine Starbucks, a cryptocurrency miner was discovered that used the computing power of client devices when connected to a public Wi-Fi network.
Information Source: Coindesk
