Bitcoin Forum

So, looks like Walmart are joining the token market. Keen to know your opinions on how this will impact Bitcoin and the Cryptocurrency e-commerce space?

Too little too late would be my gut reaction without really looking into it. The balkanization of the space by filling it with centralized shitcoins muddies the waters and just slightly delays the inevitable bitcoin adoption.

Walmart Now Returns Hits with Crypto. On August 1, it was discovered that retail giant Walmart had patented a stable plan backed by the US dollar. If released into the wild, USD-based cryptocurrency will be issued to select Walmart retailers and partners while the patent description explains that the coin can also be used outside Walmart's retail scope. The Walmart patent follows the latest Facebook Libra announcement and the 'Walmart coins' specification is similar to the social media giant project.
Large companies have announced the creation of their own cryptocurrency and news has become a hot topic in the crypto community. It all started on June 18 when Facebook announced the launch of Libra, a stable that would be available on Messenger, Whatsapp and as a standalone application, with the company expecting to launch a product in 2020. However, the Facebook project angered politicians and immediately underwent regulatory pressure from leaders world and threats from US congressmen.
Now Walmart is stepping up the ring to test its own blockchain technology because the company has filed a patent for a new digital currency that illustrates a stable coin supported by the USD. Walmart Coins, if developed, can be easily tested at 11,458 hypermarkets, department stores and wholesale clubs located in 27 countries. Walmart Coins were made by Robert Cantrell, David Nelms, John O'Brien, and Brian McHale.

Every company which is initiating its own tokenization effort is a welcome update. We have already seen a lot of them. Tokenization developments are not only focused on retail business such as Walmart but also in terms of real estate, transportation, agriculture, energy, medicine, data, freelancing, ads, gambling, and so many others. 

However, the biggest problem here is that a huge and very influential company such as Walmart getting its feet into cryptocurrency will be very hot in the eyes of the government. With an annual income of at least $500 billion, more than a couple of million employees, and millions of millions of customers daily, I don't think the government will just leave them doing their shift from fiat into crypto free and without any hindrance. This is going to be a hard battle for them.

(Source: https://cryptoslate.com/walmart-patents-own-cryptocurrency-battle-amazon-retail/)

That would be their main obstacle in fully implementing their own stable coin.
The government will not slip this from their eyes as Walmart is giving them a hefty amount of corporate income tax.
I am curious how the arrangement would be if they will integrate their own stable coin within their system.
But of course, this is another good development in crypto world.

I can tell you now, the US Government is going to stop these "Private" coins, before it takes off with every company having it's own token and competing with the Dollar. A lot of these companies are global and their token will have a impact on the local reserve currencies too, so you will get push back from the smaller governments, because a foreign currency are used by their citizens to buy goods and services in their country.

Imagine Wallmart only accepting the US Dollar for goods and services in another country outside of the US.  ::)

They will create their own token so people who are longing to see that launch are the ones who really are using or buying at Walmart.

This is all about the adoption and these huge companies doesn't want to ride the craze late.

I think this is the right way for walmart, they can't lie that the need for blockchain technology is very important in business especially they are one of the big ecommerce. They certainly do not want to be left behind and overtaken by rival ecommerce since Facebook plans to launch their blockchain coins. Well I think this will bring new impacts and changes in the future.


I think the management of Walmart has thought about that, so they know what needs to be done to deal with the US government. Even so the US government can not unilaterally stop tokens that Walmart will launch, they must have a clear reason. Walmart only needs to meet the requirements and rules according to US regulations for the launch of their tokens.

I believe that if they create a stable coin based on the US dollar, it will be little more than a payment service. It is unlikely to gain international acceptance if Washington continues to try to destroy the influence of the US in the world.

Seeing how far this blockchain technology is going positively, no doubt big companies like Walmart are very interested in joining cryptocurrency. Some.rumours are saying that Walmart will compete Facebook's stable coin "Libra". However, after reading  this (https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/ronshevlin/2019/08/05/why-does-walmart-want-a-cryptocurrency/amp/), it seems that Walmart will not create their own coin but will just accept crypto coins as a payments.

It's going to be another stable coin. They may suffer the same fate with Facebook coin whom is still having a running battle with the US senate. Well for the impact for bitcoin, its users will eventually get to learn about bitcoin and buy more of bitcoin because of its economic reward.

I don't know, I have mixed feelings about this. Okay, I get it that Bitcoin is not very suitable for Walmart. But a stable coin like Tether just kills the whole point of being a cryptocurrency, doesn't it? Sure, this money cannot be faked, but the transactions will probably have the same problems as Bitcoin currently has if we are talking about many transactions per second. Why not use DAG instead? Or something that already exists nowadays? Why do they always need to try making their own currency, as if it's going to be any better than more than a thousand cryptos we already have. It seems very profit-oriented, not user-oriented. And I am not sure the spread of centralized coins is beneficial for the crypto market.

Probably. We are witnessing a privatization of money. Unfortunately centralized efforts are doomed to be subjugated by the state. And like you say, Walmart could be forbidden to use its own coin in countries like the USA. Walmart is actually present in China (Chinese rich go there to purchase expensive American imported goods), we should expect a similar situation there.

Save for a few exceptions like the HKD, most fiat coins are State owned. And many states forbid people from using their own. Of course they can prosecute individuals and companies, which is why centralized coins are so weak. People think because a company backs a coin makes it safer, but its actually the other way around. Ask yourself the question, can the coin survive if the parent company is destroyed? Then you know if its centralized or not.

If IBM and the likes back Bitcoin (or something very close), sure. But if they make something like Libra, that depends on Facebook survival, forget it. Zuckerberg doesn't get, how worthless his coin is by making it centralized. And some State initiatives are falling the same death trap.

Still, i guess with every initiative there is chance of discussion and promotion, and people can and will find their way to the original, here.

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think of it like each company as a country of its own. so in order for their economy to grow, walmart will only accept payments using their coin and in order for you to have walmart coins is to buy some. depends to which exchange are they going to list their coin but then again prices of their products will  still be base on USD. no different from what it is before but coins will now exist. its up to them what benefits are to be given to holders.

It's not. I think you are right to be wary.

Walmart announced that it applied for a cryptocurrency patent and, predictably, the cryptopress began speculating about the giant retailers’ plans and intentions.Walmart tends to become an ecosystem payment mechanism and bank the unbanked. Why Walmart Wants a Cryptocurrency? Banking the unbanked, payroll, and to eliminate credit cards. There are two primary reasons why Walmart wants a cryptocurrency: 1) Reduce interchange fees, and 2) Enhance cross-border remittances.

With that being said, it only shows the benefits of having crypto within their system. I seriously think that this will push thru as they already identify the benefits it will have to their operations as well as to their customers. This only proves that if crypto is utilized properly, it will create a good impact to the business. The management will not think of it if they don't see any potential of using it. I hope we will see more of these established businesses integrating crypto within their system.

Why not just USDT then?
The name says it all, and it will just be the same value as dollar.
They wont need to go way far into making so much fuss and paperworks about it.

Of course they wont pick bitcoin. That is USA my friend and there is this name called Trump. ;D

Can you imagine this, the Gov set a crypto payment processor and most of stores use it, like walmart or even amazon as an e-commerce website, so they can link that wallet who paid to the shipping address, what a nightmare.that's an extra reason why i only use each address one time.

This is not the first time Walmart join the crypto world market. The first one is the food supply chain, so it is not surprisingly Walmart join the medicine into digital circulation, and eventually unite more into different blockchains. The result of joining the e-commerce into chains will easily control, simply track or verify prescript drugs and the database. It is really advantageous to related company, and organization. Moreover the variety of brand of products will lessen the price of transportation and vice versa with the consumers. It means that the btc and other altcoins increases for it’s highly demand.

After making an announcement about the Libra and Tether now Walmart also declared about its a private coin, so it's the beginning of the revolution of this cryptocurrency, though it's a stable coin but people's perception is getting changed about the cryptocurrency and they are making themselves prepared to be part of this newly invented monetary platform. I think the coming of Walmart doesn't make any negative impact on this cryptocurrency because it's totally different from mainstream cryptocurrency, it's a stable coin and cryptocurrency is not the same. so it's not a matter of concerning issue for me, It's a development of this stage and flourishes it more and more.

It is unlikely that this will greatly affect the crypto, but nevertheless it is good

So the retail giant walmart is also planning to take advantage of the centralized market just like facebook. Heard they are trying to patent something and they might wait till facebook release their centralized token and come up with their version of token that could be used in their stores. Looks like they are also planning to come up with another stable coin. There might be a time when every corporate companies come up with their version of stable coin and then the government will come up with their version  :D.

Walmart coin is similar to Libra coin which facebook have.  The Walmart coin will not have much impact on cryptocurrency market since walmart coin can only be used to purchase things on wilmart. One of its primary purpose is to make online shopping more convenient to shoppers and while using walmart coin a loyalty award in form of coins will enter into their wallet.

just like reward points. just instead of reward points, that would be for initial purchase. rest the functioning will remain the same.

Indeed, it only sounds like good for crypto world because of its automation and also offers faster transactions but in reality I don't think it will hype btc's price. It's point of application is only limited for walmart coin, actually they could made a wiser decision if they also accepts btc payments. But who knows? Maybe it's just their first step for utilizing even more options like crypto :).

Walmart is one of the leading business and it does not want to lose craze about the efficient use of blockchain technology in their system and start their own crypto token so as to compete with others.It is good for them as they are taking forward step to enter the market.But governmemt might intervene in their business as rules are not supportive for crypto market in USA but still its a good marketing technique for them to apply to increase customer base.

People have a divided opinion on the entrance of giant companies to cryptocurrency by issuing their own centralized coin taking advantage of their own captured market just like what Walmart and Facebook are doing. Both of these projects are looking at the remittance market and the millions who are regularly on traffic to their own private infrastructure. In the case of Walmart, they can easily use their own coins for their hundreds different stores and this is a huge market...the same thing with Facebook.

I still have to hear any news of any regulator questioning the intent of Walmart and can be because the project has not been that activated in the eyes of the public. Is this still in its infancy? Or is already on the stage the same as Libra is now?

Concern that a project like this can disrupt the traditional banking and finance system, we have to make sure that parameters and safeguards are in place. The only big concern here is that this is not a decentralized platform unlike Bitcoin. This is the reason why I myself is not on full support of this initiative though it is exciting to see blockchain and cryptocurrency now being recognized by many businesses.

It's nice to see that companies are looking into the potential of cryptocurrencies and invests on developments of their tokens. It may have an impact to the current market if the public percieved crypto as a good alternative to payment, however, we are quite unsure how significant its effect would be. But it does help introduce crypto to the innocent ones who does not know anything about it.

Several replies here are right, a private company initiating engagements with cryptocurrencies won't go well. We know that the current administration does not want negotiations using crypto.

The era of tokens and digital currency is starting to become popular, if Facebook with their libra is successful in the market, there will certainly be many other companies that will make their own tokens, not just Walmart. but honestly I'm still very loyal to bitcoin, libra has a lot of cons, and so does Walmart if they follow Facebook's footsteps.

Stable coins of any kind are not a direct threat to Bitcoin in any way. They are tied to the US Dollar which means they lose value. It's like saying buying dollars on paypal will rival Bitcoin. It is however a nice on ramp for the average person to trade into BTC should they allow it.

I agree on you with this one because the other effect of this movement could bring more awareness for Bitcoin although these large companies are creating their own stablecoins but I'm wondering that if Facebook and Walmart passed from the regulators, does it mean that Bitcoin will passed too?

It is true that stablecoins are not a threat because they follow the USD currency. but still will be different from btc.

walmart jumps into cryptocurrency whose prices are related to fiat currencies and is facilitated by blockchain or stabelcoin walmart is a company that has a large enough income and in my opinion walmart has no challenges for bitcoin and does not affect other cryptocurrency because bitcoin is the first digital currency launched and bitcoin one Standalone coins without the help of other altcoins.

Atleast there are two important reasons that make walmart interested in cryptocurrency.
1. To reduce interchange fees
2. To enchances cross border remittance
In 2013 wallmart paid roughly $3 billion in interchanges fee. It seems that wallmart has good reason to find way out for it's problems by using cryptocurrency. I think instead of still using the traditional way of doing transaction we better use a more modern way that is certainly better. Bitcoin price will rise because when wallmart pay it's employee using cryptocurrency it will create demand for bitcoin. It can be good sentiment for bitcoin price.

For the start maybe, once it works fine they can eventually accept other crypto as payment, but for a start since it's a new adoption they need to examine or to consider those who are not still aware in crypto. It's a good start even it only focuses on being a stablecoin, let's just hope they will consider more  function in the future.

In this regard, if wallmart coin will use the blockchain technology, and technically they can still buy wallmart coin using cryptocurrency. If that is so, it can affect the cryptospace holistically, their market volume are connected in such a way that we should also consider when making decisions. Walmart coin might just be used inside, but if its value increases, traders might also make profits out of it.

These things are made for each other - Walmart and Crypto