The automobile manufacturer, BMW, has revealed their partnership with blockchain infrastructure developer Coinweb and Binance’s native BNB chain in a plan to automate and fully integrate company processes within the blockchain, as well as develop a customer reward program.
You forgot a fairly significant detail or two pic.twitter.com/wjEyKJG6SZ
— Ed Zitron (@edzitron) December 30, 2022
They revealed this to the cryptocurrency press, Cointelegraph, on Thursday, December 29, 2022. However, as stated in the press release and pointed out by blockchain enthusiasts on Twitter, the customer integration part of this initiative will only be available to customers of BMW in Thailand, at least in the beginning.
BMW reportedly has plans to integrate two blockchain partners, Coinweb and the BNB chain, in a two-phase plan to adopt blockchain infrastructure. The first will be building, with Coinweb, a blockchain-based decentralized system for automating much of the company’s paperwork and manual processes internally.
The second phase of BMW’s blockchain integration, which more directly affects customers and users of cryptocurrency, is the partnership with Binance’s native BNB chain to handle transactions, including creating a customer loyalty program. This program will reward BMW customers with loyalty points redeemable for BNB tokens when they interact with the manufacturer or their products and services. These points can then be used to purchase other BMW products and services, facilitated by the BNB chain.
The news was released by Cointelegraph and subsequently announced on Twitter by the press to the excitement of blockchain enthusiasts. However, for now, as pointed out by one Twitter user, the blockchain customer loyalty program will only be available to Thai customers, and no plans have yet been made to roll out the BNB chain integration to the rest of the world.
The move is only a pilot project, and BMW may pursue full adoption and roll the initiative out to the rest of the world if it succeeds.
Some blockchain enthusiasts on Twitter were quick to query the choice of the BNB chain for the transaction system, as the FUD wave surrounding exchanges in this year’s last quarter has hit Binance significantly. In the wake of FTX’s insolvency, distrust of centralized exchanges is at an all-time high. Despite Binance’s reassurance that the exchange is solid, some users question the use of their native token in the hypothetical event of Binance’s collapse.
However, the press release notes that other than the BNB chain being used for transactions, the infrastructure being used by BMW will be built by Coinweb, decentralized, and as such independent from Binance itself.
