The announcement that Walmart has filed a patent for a stablecoin has been met with a markedly stifled reaction when contrasted with the seemingly fiery reaction to Facebook’s planned stablecoin, ‘Libra’.
Danny Scott, the chief executive officer of British-based bitcoin exchange, CoinCorner, expects that more of the so-called FAANG companies will step forward with their own virtual currency patents before 2020.
“Following the announcement of Facebook’s Libra in June, this news was certainly not unexpected – in fact, we expect to see more FAANG companies filing patents for their own cryptocurrencies in the coming months,” he stated.
Walmart’s Crypto Could Help Low-Income-Households
Walmart’s filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office describes a method for “generating one digital currency unit by tying the one digital currency unit to a regular currency.”
The company claims that stablecoins may provide comprise a more efficient means for low-income households to conduct basic financial transactions. “Using a digital currency, low-income households that find banking expensive, may have an alternative way to handle wealth at an institution that can supply the majority of their day-to-day financial and product needs,” Walmart states.
CoinCorner CEO Says Walmart Won’t Compte With BTC
Despite acknowledging the publicity generated for the crypto industry when leading global companies enter the virtual currency sector, Mr. Scott described stablecoin issuance as comprising “a waste of time and resources for these companies, stating there are already a number of stalbecoins out there “doing exactly the same job,” and as such Walmert or Facebook aren’t “bringing anything new to the table.”
Per CoinCorner’s CEO, they’re hoping their brand names will help them become the default choice. He added:
We remain unconcerned with regards to the risk that ‘Facebook Coin’ or ‘Walmart Coin’ or ‘The Next Big Company Coin’ pose a threat to Bitcoin. No matter how big the name behind these coins, for as long as there is a central authority with control, Bitcoin has no competition.
