Starbucks partners with Polygon to promote Web 3.0 technology

Starbucks Corporation, the American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves has recently unveiled a web 3 partnership for Starbucks Odyssey with Polygon blockchain, the layer 2 Ethereum scaling network.

The revelation was on both Starbucks‘ and Polygon’s websites. The partnership is to collaborate closely in developing Starbucks’ Web 3.0 experience. This is through creating a new reward program called the Starbucks Odyssey.

Many believe that Starbucks received the name Odyssey from inspiration from the Greek hero Odysseus proving his devotion to his wife in Homer’s legendary poem, The Odyssey. Similarly, Starbucks is out to test Web 3.0 strengths over brand loyalty. Starbucks Odyssey will facilitate Starbucks Rewards members and partners in the United States to earn and purchase digital collectibles. The new Web3 experience allows customers to purchase these digital collectibles in NFTs for various benefits and immersive coffee experiences for its users.

What involves the Starbucks NFT Based Loyalty Program?

The world’s largest coffee chain provided initial hints of a new Web 3.0 experience in May. It then announced plans of launching a series of NFT collections for unique experiences, community building, and customer engagement. The Starbucks Odyssey program deployment is to be later in the year for its reward members and employees whom Starbucks refers to as partners. They will then earn digital stamps. Partners can purchase and trade limited edition digital stamps minted in the form of NFTs or a blockchain token representing ownership of digital collectibles and artwork.

This particular initiative is an extension of the current Starbucks Rewards program where its partners can play interactive games and complete challenges testing their knowledge of coffee and the Starbucks brand via the Starbucks app to earn journey stamps.

The Starbucks company will facilitate the sale of limited edition NFT stamps. Members can purchase these stamps with either crypto or a credit card. There will be no requirement for a crypto wallet or cryptocurrency to claim an ownership stake in their loyalty to Starbucks. The Starbucks Odyssey web app provides a secondary marketplace for stamp owners to buy and sell at their convenience.

Starbucks has laid out incentives for the collection of these stamps. The NFTs will uplift a user’s level within the Starbucks Odyssey app for potential rewards such as private events access, exclusive merchandise, virtual drink mixing classes, and a visit to Starbucks’ Costa Rican coffee farm. Crypto enthusiasts understand that some proceeds from NFT sales support undisclosed clauses as per the company statement. Some of the proceeds are charity donations.
Crypto Lists reports that the Gemini-owned NFT art marketplace, Nifty Gateway, is responsible for secure NFT storage and marketplace functionality of the Starbucks Odyssey program. Nifty Gateway is a popular NFT marketplace from its NFT collections of various artists including Beeple and The Weeknd. The NFT marketplace has recently released a Publishers initiative for brands and creators to develop their NFT drops via the Nifty Gateway technology.

The waitlist for the Starbucks Odyssey Program is live now for those interested.

Why Starbucks partnered with Polygon

Polygon is a layer 2 blockchain of Ethereum that facilitates affordable, faster, and energy-efficient transactions compared to the Ethereum mainnet. The Ethereum sidechain is becoming a popular blockchain for brand partners seeking to enter the crypto space. Coca-Cola and Reddit both launched their NFTs utilising the Polygon platform, while Disney partnered with Polygon for its Web 3 accelerator program during the summer.

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When Starbucks teased its plans months back for a Web 3 initiative, it received criticism from its employees citing the environmental effect some NFT platforms have. It is no surprise that they stuck with a proof of stake network that forfeits crypto mining. Polygon currently uses significantly less energy than the Ethereum mainnet which is still on a Proof of work consensus.

The Starbucks and Polygon partnership announcement triggered a positive trigger to MATIC, the native token of Polygon, within 24 hours by increasing its value by over 3% and spiking its trading volume by 107%. The partnership has brought an additional use case to the Polygon network which creates more demand for its native token called MATIC.

Web3 is catching up on global adoption with recent events proving crucial with various industry giants in different sectors finding ways of establishing themselves in the Web3 industry. Industry giants of the automobile, technology, restaurant chains, and coffee houses embracing Web3. Crypto Lists believes the recent events by Starbucks were expected.