Rewards/Points System on the Blockchain?

[Abiky]

I've seen many retailers and restaurants offering rewards to their customers in the form of points. Those same points can be redeemed anytime for an item of your choice. Or simply apply them as a discount for your next purchase. All of this is built on top of traditional centralized infrastructure. But what if companies put a points system built on top of a Blockchain instead? Wouldn't it be better?

I mean, crypto/Blockchain tech is very popular these days. Why isn't this a thing? Could it be skepticism? Or fear from getting scrutinized by the government?

Your input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[shinratensei_]

Last time I see this kind of reward program is from Nansen, they offered discount codes and hardware wallets. Other projects, not so much possibly because regulatory risk that could trigger AML and money transmission rules, sounds like a pain in the ass, although honestly these standard loyalty points usually exempt from such rules if done right.

Moreover, it's not like many crypto projects aren't known to exclude several countries with geo-blocking because not including them is cheaper, legality wise. Less top lawyer to hire.

[Exitoral]

Well, restaurants want to retain their customers to keep on buying. It's not like there's a bigger reward if you keep buying. The customers are actually spending money and it's beneficial to both the business and the customers. Let's look at Blockchain. It already has and still having more and more individuals and institutions joining. It's not like Bitcoin wants to retain customers or something. Except centralised platform wants to do it, but thinking about it what will one actually spend those points on that will be beneficial to both the platform and the individuals. I don't see any. Moreover there's gas fees that will make that impossible. Hope I am making sense?

Come to look at it properly, it's not like gold offers point for preservation of your wealth. And if we compare Bitcoin to gold because of it's immerse value, you can see it's impractical to offer points.

[Korvane.io]

I've seen many retailers and restaurants offering rewards to their customers in the form of points. Those same points can be redeemed anytime for an item of your choice. Or simply apply them as a discount for your next purchase. All of this is built on top of traditional centralized infrastructure. But what if companies put a points system built on top of a Blockchain instead? Wouldn't it be better?

I mean, crypto/Blockchain tech is very popular these days. Why isn't this a thing? Could it be skepticism? Or fear from getting scrutinized by the government?

Your input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Blockchain-based points can make sense, but only if the reward system is connected to real value creation.

The technology itself does not solve sustainability. If points or rewards are created only through new token emissions, hype, or unsupported incentives, then it becomes the same problem we see in many crypto projects: rewards without a real economic source.

A good rewards system should be backed by actual business activity, revenue, customer loyalty, or productive demand. Otherwise, blockchain only makes the system more visible, not more sustainable.

Best regards,

The Architect

[MAAManda]

I mean, crypto/Blockchain tech is very popular these days. Why isn't this a thing? Could it be skepticism? Or fear from getting scrutinized by the government?

For sure that's a thing, a few years ago, I came across projects such as blockchain-based loyalty programs, but I’ve forgotten their names. Since I haven't seen anything about it anymore, I assume those projects have now been abandoned, possibly due to low adoption rates or similar reasons.

When it comes to regulations, they also pose a hurdle for such projects, particularly in countries that don't permit Bitcoin (BTC) or cryptocurrency in general to be used as a means of payment. Our country (Indonesia) is one of them.

[noorman0]

Blockchain data can serve as a reference base, but because it's immutable and doesn't provide much specific information, the point system should be implemented semi-centrally. The problem is, the point system itself can be flawed and vulnerable to abuse in some cases.

We often see incentive programs from startup projects that ultimately implement KYC to prevent Sybil accounts.

[The Cryptovator]

I've seen many retailers and restaurants offering rewards to their customers in the form of points. Those same points can be redeemed anytime for an item of your choice. Or simply apply them as a discount for your next purchase. All of this is built on top of traditional centralized infrastructure. But what if companies put a points system built on top of a Blockchain instead? Wouldn't it be better?

I mean, crypto/Blockchain tech is very popular these days. Why isn't this a thing? Could it be skepticism? Or fear from getting scrutinized by the government?

Your input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

In my country also, various companies offer a reward or point system. But for the blockchain, sound seems unrealistic to me. In the retail shops or in restaurants, we are paying bills, not the service charge. On the blockchain we are paying fees; it's not a bill for purchasing something. So both can't be compared anyway since they're different industries.

If you want to implement something like this, then who will pay the rewards? Either it should be given by companies or miners. On the existing blockchain, it's quite impossible, like Bitcoin, without any hard fork. And for the new projects, it will be hard to implement; it won't be easy since something needs to pay, no matter the form of rewards or points. Also, it doesn't make sense that people will move to such a reward system by leaving existing coins.