Walmart’s Crypto Experiment to Shake the Foundations of the Retail Payment Process. . . and a Whole Lot More

(Not investment or legal advice)

In early August 2019, Walmart announced it had published a patent for a methodology for using stable coins and distributed ledger technology to eliminate the need for credit cards, to bank the unbanked, and to provide an entryway into the global economy for the retailer’s two million employees.

Walmart’s recent patent filings are grounded in the company’s main business objectives, among them, improved marketing efficiency, enhanced payment processing, and increased customer retention (all while decreasing transaction fees). It is what Walmart has been doing for the last 30 years or so.

In doing so, Walmart further pushes distributed ledger technology to mass adoption, but without user effort or inconvenience. This is not the land of Lambos and moon shots; it is much, much bigger . . .

Walmart’s Blockchain and Crypto Patents

- Walmart has applied for a slew of patents that span use cases including a crypto-powered electricity grid, shipping and delivery, and electronic medical records;[1]

- The Walmart patent published on August 1 in the USA is for a digital coin tied to…