At the recent International Bar Association, Franchise Law Committee meeting in Rome, Italy, there was a round-table discussion on the subject of blockchain technology and its possible application in the franchise industry. Craig Tractenberg, Partner at Fox Rothchild, sent me the following summary of the discussion: “One of the roundtable discussions dealt with the use of blockchain technology in franchising. Those familiar with blockchain technology know that it can be used beyond cryptocurrency transactions and applied to any record keeping. The anticipated uses of this digitized public ledger technology are for digital payment, smart contract, and database – record management systems.”
Tractenberg continued: “The discussion itemized the commercial application of the technology to the franchise context. Cited was FOODCOIN Ecosystems (https:foodcoin.io) as a global marketplace for food and agricultural products designed to eliminate intermediaries through the use of smart contacts. Another emerging company is FANTOM Foundation (https:fantom.foundation.io), which has apps for food reservations, geolocation and supply chain management. Carry Protocol (https:carryprotocol.io), provides merchants and customers a platform to communicate and understand each other, and is effectively an advertising channel.”
Terry Kim, Esq. of Lee & Ko in Seoul, South Korea, led the discussion as Korea is one of the countries leading the way in the commercial application of blockchain technology.
Chanticleer’s Holdings, which has franchise brands, American Burger, BGR, Little Burger, Just Fresh and Hooters in its portfolio, introduced Bitcoin to Hooters legacy program in January of this year. “Customers can have a cryptocurrency loyalty program across all Chanticleer Holding brands — and beyond. It runs on the MobivityMind commerce platform, and will pay out in Merits, a cryptocurrency that’s leveraging the same infrastructure and principles of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, and more,” stated Chanticleer’s CEO, Michael Pruitt.
Source Forbes