Mercado Libre announced this Thursday at a press conference that it will create a new cryptocurrency as part of its loyalty program. The cryptocurrency will be called Mercado Coin and will initially be available only in Brazil.
As reported by the Reuters agency, the clients of the ecommerce platform will gain Coin Market What refund of money or cashback when buying products in the company’s marketplace.
Technically, the cryptocurrency will be an ERC-20 token of Ethereumwhich can be used for new purchases or to negotiate it in the company’s financial services unit, MercadoPago.
As confirmed by Mercado Libre, you can also buy or sell for local currency directly from the Mercado Pago app. The Argentine exchange Ripio is the custodian before the blockchain of the purchase and sale operations of Mercado Coin.
Mercado Coin will not be listed on exchanges, said Guilherme Cohn, senior manager of Corporate Development, which would imply that the cryptographic token can only be obtained and used within the Mercado Libre ecosystem. However, the company clarified in a statement that the new crypto “is designed to be used virtually and its value can go up or down according to demand“.
How does it work
At launch, Mercado Coin will be worth 10 cents in local currency,” Mercado Libre sources explain in dialogue with Infotechnology and add: “Mercado Coin will have a variable price that will be determined by the rules of market supply and demand.”
“In this phase, its use is intended to operate within the Mercado Libre ecosystem to make purchases in the marketplace and to buy/sell/save within the Mercado Pago app”, they detail.
“The Mercado Coins are saved in the Mercado Pago app, under the ‘Crypto’ button“, they add and add: “Ripio is the custodian and exchange of the purchase and sale of cryptos made in Mercado Pago”.
In addition, they announced that there will be no defined limit on the issuance of Mercado Coins. “The necessary tokens will be issued to reward MercadoLibre users according to the definitions of their loyalty program.“, they added.
Source: The Chronicler-RIPE
