Starbucks Announces Loyalty Program Collectible NFT Stamps
Starbucks builds NFTs on Polygon’s blockchain technology; these collectibles will be part of the company’s loyalty program.
Major coffee chain Starbucks has announced that it will introduce a line of NFTs that act as digital collectible stamps, similar to reward points.
Starbucks’ new points program is called Starbucks Oddysey. The program, which was announced on September 12, will allow Starbucks Rewards members as well as partners and employees to earn points in the form of collectible NFT stamps.
Participants can earn “travel stamps” by completing challenges and activities. They can also purchase limited edition NFT stamps directly via credit card, without the need to use a cryptocurrency wallet and without the requirement to use cryptocurrency.
Starbucks NFT tokens will be built on blockchain technology from Polygon, which itself has commented on the news. Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal called the company’s blockchain a “natural choice for Starbucks, as both companies place enormous emphasis on diversity, accessibility and sustainability.”
Polygon relies on a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, which uses far less electricity than cryptocurrency mining and has a much lighter ecological impact.
In addition to its partnership with Polygon, Starbucks is also working with Web3 loyalty company Forum3 to manage its points program.
The waiting list for the Starbucks Oddysey program has already opened. Selected members will be invited to participate in the program later this year.
In its announcement, Starbucks called itself “one of the first companies to integrate non-fungible tokens (NFTs) with an industry-leading loyalty program at scale.”
While this is probably Starbucks’ most significant cryptocurrency effort to date, the company has been exploring crypto in other ways for nearly four years now.
In 2018, it partnered with commerce and payment platform Bakkt to allow Bitcoin payments under certain circumstances. That feature became more widely available in 2021, when Bakkt’s wallet left early access and became generally available.
Starbucks appeared to be exploring the possibility of integrating Bakkt’s rewards features with its own loyalty program in October 2021. The ability to convert rewards on Bakkt could have effectively linked Starbucks’ rewards to other companies’ rewards programs. However, these plans seem to have fallen through.
Instead, it appears that Polygon and Forum3 will exclusively handle the company’s crypto-based rewards program, as Bakkt was not mentioned in this month’s announcement.
Bakkt continues to support Starbucks payments on its app, as the payment app lists the coffee chain as an option on its official website.
Disclaimer: the information herein is provided without regard to your personal circumstances and should therefore not be construed as financial advice, investment recommendation or an offer for, or solicitation of, transactions in cryptocurrencies.
