Bitcoin has been, and will likely remain until the end, a roller coaster ride. But the experiment in decentralized currency has a somewhat unlikely advocate in the form of Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who thinks the future of cryptocurrencies might be your Starbucks card.
Eater has a few quotes from Schultz‘s last investor briefing. The CEO specifically rules out Starbucks doing anything with Bitcoin (or selling anything for Bitcoin), and that a “Buxcoin” is definitely not on the way. Still, it sounds quite a bit like he thinks there’s a future for cryptocurrency tech for companies like Starbucks:
I personally believe that there is going to be a one or a few legitimate trusted digital currencies off of the blockchain technology. And that legitimacy and trust in terms of its consumer application will have to be legitimatized by a brand and a brick and mortar environment, where the consumer has trust and confidence in the company that is providing the transaction…we are in a very unique position to take advantage of what other tech companies and the blockchain technology will provide in terms of the rails to potentially be in the mix and benefit financially, benefit in terms of consumer behavior and incrementality and significantly create long-term shareholder value.
As we’ve noted elsewhere, other companies are using cryptocurrency technology to create what amounts to more flexible loyalty programs and gift cards, something Starbucks, with its Starbucks cards built into its app, knows all about. Technology has been incredibly useful to Starbucks, which has seen orders through the app do better with each passing year. It revealed in the same earnings call that Starbucks is holding $1.5 billion in people’s money, in the form of Starbucks card balances. In fact, 40% of their transactions were via Starbucks cards.
That’s a ton of cash waiting to become coffee and Starbucks, not unreasonably, would prefer to do something with it, much like a bank invests your deposits. That’s where cryptocurrency technology comes into play. Since blockchains are just large, public ledgers anybody can see, if Starbucks wanted to invest your Starbucks card money in, say, coffee futures, you’d know where that money was going. Or, less exotically, if somebody opens your phone and tries to help themselves to your Starbucks card balance by sending it to their phone, Starbucks would have a public record of the transaction and could easily refund you.
Now, whether Starbucks should be investing your gift card money is a separate conversation. But as cryptocurrency becomes more available, it’s one we’re most certainly going to have.
(via Eater)