If you’re a regular reader of my blogs over the years, you know well about how I feel about fast food restaurants implementing interactive digital signage kiosks as apparent replacements for staffers to take orders.
McDonald’s was the first big burger chain I noticed doing it and I recently saw an even worse setup at my local Wendy’s with the kiosks on the opposite side of the restaurant from the front counter, where customers are used to placing their orders. And, yes, I do want fries with that.
Technology is now invading Burger King too, at least in Venezuela, where bitcoin is now an acceptable form of payment.
Here’s more about the fast food giant’s foray into cryptocurrency by Post of America:
Bitcoin (BTC) has come to Burger King in Venezuela as a new partnership opens up cryptocurrency payments at the fast-food chain.
Confirmed in a tweet on Dec. 30, a single Burger King branch in the Sambil area of Caracas now accepts Bitcoin, along with altcoins Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Binance Coin (BNB) and Dash (DASH), as well as stablecoin Tether (USDT).
Venezuela continues to suffer from major economic turmoil, giving rise to efforts to boost cryptocurrency usage. The government has shunned borderless payment methods, imposing heavy restrictions on foreign currency access.
A total of 40 locations will follow suit in 2020, according to a blog post from Dash executives about the move.
We’ll see how this initiative develops, especially since the Venezuela-based BKs are still not ready to say they’re even participating in it yet:
Burger King Venezuela meanwhile stopped short of publicly acknowledging its crypto foray. In recent years, the idea that Venezuelans are turning to coins such as Dash has further come under scrutiny.
And it doesn’t help that Burger King hasn’t exactly excelled in its technological efforts in the past:
Burger King’s experiments with Bitcoin have fallen flat in the past. Various initiatives in Russia and Europe appeared to be short-lived, with acceptance disappearing soon after launch. The company’s Russian presence also began a dedicated loyalty scheme dubbed “Whoppercoin,” which earned it attention from the country’s prosecutor.
