By: Franyi Sarmiento, Ph.D., Inspenet, August 22, 2022
MercadoLibre launched this week its own cryptocurrency, Mercado Coin. Initially, it will be available only to customers in Brazil.
Marcos Galperin, founder and CEO of MercadoLibre, confirmed the information. The Argentine businessman commented that the launch of this cryptocurrency is a “boost” to his customer loyalty program.
Mercado Coin has a start-up cost of USD 0.10. It is a volatile cryptoasset and its market price is determined by bidders and askers. For now, it is only available through the Mercado Pago application and not in cryptocurrency exchanges.
According to its developers, it is an ERC-20 token that inhabits the Ethereum network. The EthExplorer block explorer shows the existence of a token with the name “Mercado Coin”, which had the last update in its code last August 2. There is also the “Mercado Libre inc” token, which dates back to July 24. It is worth clarifying that anyone can create a token and give it any name they wish, so these two tokens are not necessarily related to Mercado Libre.
The purpose of this token, according to Reuters, is to give small rewards to MercadoLibre users based on their use of the platform. You will receive Mercado Coins for interacting with Mercado Pago, for using their shipping service, etcetera.
Fernando Yunes, vice president of MercadoLibre Brazil, said that although this first launch will be aimed only at the Brazilian market, at some point they will expand to other countries. They clarify that they have no confirmed date for this expansion.
Source: https://www.criptonoticias.com/negocios/mercadolibre-lanza-propia-criptomoneda-ethereum/
Photo credit: Leonidas Santana / Shutterstock.com
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