Gift Cards as a Business Currency System


Gift card balances, airline miles, loyalty points are currencies issued by businesses, backed by their products and services. In the modern era, business currencies have been used for a range of purposes beyond gifting, such as charitable giving, payment of wages, legal settlements. They are important tools to reward brand loyalty, encourage consumption, generate new sales, and even raise capital.

However, gift cards still run on archaic technology like Serial-PIN swipe cards, or siloed databases. It is difficult for consumers to do basic things like track or combine balances, recover lost funds, transfer balance. Secondary market, where secondhand gift cards are re-sold or exchanged, is rife with fraud.

An open, secure, and standardized gift card system on the blockchain can unlock tremendous value for consumers, businesses, and the economy.

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Complementary Currency System

Check out some cool use cases of business currencies (on right). Airline miles can be donated to affiliated charity organziations. Some companies, esp in the cryptocurrency space, have started paying employees and suppliers in the currency they issue. For example, the BNB tokens issued by Binance can be used to pay for exchange fees and participate in the Binance ecosystem. Chick Fil-A has been legally approved to pay out settlement claims in their gift card balances. Businesses like Verizon and Target have launched various initiatives to cross-sell to customers using gift cards as incentives.

Complementary currency system is a concept that is supported by recent academic research in economics. The works by Professor Bernard Lietaer have been seminal in the design and proposal of this project. A currency system, issued by businesses and backed by their products and services, can increase economic activity in times of stability and be the "spare tire" in times of crisis.

Former Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan says he "envisages proposals in the near future for issuers of electronic payment obligations, such as stored-value cards or digital cash to set up specialised issuing corporations with strong balance sheets and public credit ratings" and he foresees "new private currency markets in the 21st century".