In an event held this Thursday morning (18), Mercado Livre announced a new cryptocurrency to be used as a buying and selling solution on the platform. As of this date, around 500,000 people will receive access to the so-called Mercado Coin.
Customers will receive this cryptocurrency as a kind of cashback with each purchase, which can be used as a discount on a future order within Mercado Livre or sold for cash within Mercado Pago.
“Mercado Coin is an innovative tool that enriches our loyalty program and generates a new experience within the platform. This new product adds even more value to our loyalty relationship with millions of users, as the more purchases they make, the greater the amount of Mercado Coin. We are very excited about this new milestone in our ecosystem.”
Fernando Yunes
Senior Vice President of Mercado Livre in Europe
Digital currency can be accumulated over time as it does not expire. The customer will also be able to buy more of it within the company’s payment platform.
Mercado Coin will use the blockchain with Ethereum’s ERC-20 protocol, a standard which monitors all transactions to follow security standards, to create a standard RC20 token.
“The blockchain technology behind Mercado Coin allowed us to develop an open and extremely secure solution. We continue to follow the evolution of cryptoassets and blockchain technology, as we believe in the potential of these tools to simplify operations, connect and promote the financial development of people.”
Guilherme Cohn
Senior Manager of Corporate Development at Mercado Livre
Questioned by TechSmart, the senior manager of corporate development, Guilherme Cohn, said that there is an initial batch available on the market – the amount of which was not disclosed by him –, which is not expected to receive new batches in the future, so as not to affect the offer. . In addition, the contract was audited by the OpenZeppelin.
The initiative is part of a new partnership between Mercado Livre and Ripio. Even so, the partnership with Paxos remains maintained, in the offer of Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDP. The amount invested was not disclosed by the company, but the company stressed that this is the result of a year and a half work by the teams, until the launch.
Value and availability
At first, Mercado Coin will start at $0.10 and later, its value will be defined by the market. It will only be available to Mercado Pago users at this first moment, that is, it will not appear on other exchanges.
The new cryptocurrency will be progressively released to Europeian users, starting this Thursday (18). The intention is to expand to other Latin American countries in the future, but there is still no forecast for this expansion.
So, did you like the arrival of a digital currency to Mercado Livre? Comment with us!
