MOSCOW, Russia–The latest in payments competition for credit unions allows consumers to hold the onions.
Forget Apple Pay or Fitbit Pay. Burger King has launched its own crypto-currency, called WhopperCoin, in Russia. Customers will be able to claim one coin for every ruble they spend on the Whopper sandwich.
Russians will be able to buy a Whopper with the virtual cash, once they have amassed 1,700 WhopperCoins.
According to Burger King, it plans to release Apple and Android apps next month so people could save, share and trade their wallet full of WhopperCoins.
Burger King said it has partnered with crypto-cash start-up Waves to create and run the payment program.
Waves reported that it runs the blockchain ledger for the coin to keep track of who has coins and what has been done with them. Customers will be able to claim their coins by scanning a receipt with a smartphone.
Ivan Shestov, head of external communications at Burger King Russia, said the scheme turned the Whopper into an "investment vehicle.”