Starbucks accepts Bitcoin and paves the way for mainstream adoption for cryptocurrencies as the latest cryptocurrency news report. The United States coffeehouse chain has finally confirmed the allegations after it teamed up with Microsoft to track its beans with the help of blockchain.
The reports also mention that the coffee giant might start accepting BTC payments in the US branches later in 2019. Starbuck’s relationship with crypto starts somewhere early in 2018 when the CEO of the company Howard Schultz discussed the matter in the earnings call in Q1. Shultz was skeptical about bitcoin at that time and suggested:
“I’m bringing this up because as we think about the future of our company and the future of consumer behavior, I personally believe that there is going to be a one or a few legitimate trusted digital currencies off of the blockchain technology.”
Schultz added in an interview with Fox Business that cryptocurrencies have an underlying technology and pointed out that: I think blockchain technology is probably the rails in which an integrated app at Starbucks will be sitting on top of.’’
Additionally, Starbucks made clear that it would make a pilot program open source to disseminate their findings. The partnership with Microsoft includes predictive drive-thru ordering and IOT enabled equipment in the cafe locations. The CEO of Starbucks Kevin Johnson was also a former Microsoft executive so when Starbucks accepts Bitcoin with Microsoft’s help, the sales are expected to increase.
It is unknown why Starbucks needs a blockchain in the first place. Dowling suggests that the blockchain could represent a potential improved way to track which farmer is sourcing the best beans:
“To be honest, I find the entire program, as explained in the press, very confusing and I’m not sure what problem they are trying to solve. […] Why does it need to be decentralized? Why does this program — of people voting for beans, I think — require the application of public/private keys and a distributed database?”
As reported in the best cryptocurrency news sites, Starbucks still has to clarify why the blockchain technology is needed and how exactly it could benefit the entire company including the farmers. However, the coffee giant still hasn’t provided an answer up to press time.
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