Burger King in Germany accepts Bitcoin payments! How far is cryptocurrency from life?

With Burger King in Germany accepting Bitcoin payments, it is not difficult to imagine that this restaurant chain with more than 10,000 stores in more than 60 countries around the world will attract restaurants in more regions and other large restaurant brands to pay attention to and join the cryptocurrency market.

“Burger King is the world’s second largest restaurant chain with a history of more than 60 years. It has more than 10,000 stores in more than 60 countries around the world and more than 11 million consumers visit it every day. Once Bitcoin is accepted on a large scale, it may bring hundreds of millions of users to the cryptocurrency market.”

On September 2, according to Coingape, Burger King Germany has announced that it will accept Bitcoin payments.

This means that customers of Burger King, the world’s second-largest restaurant chain, in Germany can now purchase their favorite meals using Bitcoin.

Public data shows that Burger King mainly sells hamburgers, French fries, fried chicken and other fast food, with more than 10,000 stores in more than 60 countries around the world and more than 11 million consumers visiting every day. In the future, the company plans to add 3,000 stores in China, Russia, India and Brazil to achieve substantial growth.

From actively deploying in the global catering market to improving online payment methods through Bitcoin, Burger King, which has a history of more than 60 years, is trying to further expand the scale of payments through cryptocurrencies.

Burger King partners with Tillster to launch mobile payment solution

Prior to accepting Bitcoin payments, Burger King customers in Germany noticed that the company’s mobile app had integrated cryptocurrency payment methods, and currently has Bitcoin payment options added to other payment methods such as Visa card and PayPal.

At that time, in order to adapt to the growing consumer base and meet their payment needs for speed and scalability, Burger King announced a partnership with Tillster, a San Diego-based mobile payment solutions company, to launch a mobile application that facilitates payment.

Currently, Tillster has reached cooperation with many large restaurant chains, including KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Boston Market, etc.

“Mobile payments bring benefits to both brands and consumers when used and implemented, creating a win-win for both sides,” said Perse Faily, CEO of Tillster. “For consumers, they are able to take advantage of a convenient, simple way to pay for goods and choose additional services, such as exclusive coupons.”

From the current perspective, the launch of the mobile application has paved the way for Burger King's decision to offer Bitcoin payments. At the same time, the characteristics of cryptocurrency will help the company provide customers with a more efficient and faster payment method.

Burger King once tried the cryptocurrency market

In fact, the launch of Bitcoin payment service is not Burger King’s first foray into the cryptocurrency field. As early as August 2017, the company began testing the cryptocurrency market.

According to CNBC, a US financial media, Burger King Russia issued a press release at the time saying that the company had launched its own cryptocurrency, Whopper Coin, on the blockchain platform Waves. “The token is named after Burger King’s star dish, the Whopper, and the number is 1 billion, and additional issuance may be made.”

According to Burger King, customers only need to send a scan of their receipt and the company will transfer Whopper coins to their cryptocurrency wallet. For every ruble spent, one Whopper coin is earned. With enough Whopper coins, customers can not only redeem burgers, but also transfer or buy and sell tokens on Waves. However, this service is only available to consumers in Russia.

Ivan Shestov, head of public relations at Burger King Russia, said at the time, “The Whopper is no longer just a burger loved by people in 90 countries, it is also an investment tool.”

Regarding Burger King's launch of its own cryptocurrency, Garrick Hileman, a researcher at the Center for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge, said: "Traditional membership points programs, such as airline miles, either have no transaction options or are greatly restricted. But having an independently branded cryptocurrency that can be freely exchanged with national currencies and even exchanged for other assets will make it more attractive than other membership points systems."

How far is Bitcoin from ordinary people?

With Burger King in Germany accepting Bitcoin payments, it is not difficult to imagine that this restaurant chain with more than 10,000 stores in more than 60 countries around the world will attract restaurants in more regions and other large restaurant brands to pay attention to and join the cryptocurrency market.

In addition, once more and more brands that are well-known to ordinary people gradually launch Bitcoin-related services, Bitcoin, which was originally called "far away from our lives", will not only penetrate into our daily lives faster, but will also drive more ordinary people to pay more attention to the entire cryptocurrency market, promote cryptocurrency to enter the mainstream market, and further open up trillions of market dividends.

It should be noted that Burger King will face various challenges from itself and the market in the process of introducing Bitcoin payment services and promoting Bitcoin into the public eye.

For example, the game distribution platform Steam announced in 2016 that it would accept Bitcoin, which greatly encouraged cryptocurrency enthusiasts. However, this sentiment did not last long. By the end of 2017, Steam decided to stop accepting Bitcoin payments due to high transaction fees and excessive price volatility.

Seymour Locksmiths, a small British business, began accepting Bitcoin and other digital assets as payments as early as 2014, but has never received a single transaction in cryptocurrency.

However, it is certain that cryptocurrencies will eventually penetrate into our daily lives. According to Coinmap.org data, as of July this year, there are more than 15,000 platforms accepting Bitcoin worldwide, up about 5% from February this year, including large online retailer Overstock, Switzerland's largest retailer Digitec, tourism giant Expedia, global Fortune 500 company Dell, Germany's largest food delivery portal Lieferando.de, and so on.

As Marc Andreessen, a Facebook board member and a well-known Silicon Valley venture capitalist, recently said, “Cryptocurrency is very close to mainstream adoption.”

Editor-in-charge: Tang Jing