Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), the beloved US-based fried chicken chain, has started to accept bitcoin from its customers.
KFC’s Bitcoin Campaign
For a limited period of time, KFC is selling a bucket of fried chicken for $20 presented in a bitcoin-themed container demonstrating the price of the fried chicken bucket at the time of the sale. For instance, at the time of reporting, $20 is equivalent to $0.0011204, and upon the request of a delivery, KFC embeds the amount of bitcoin equivalent to the price of the bucket of fried chicken onto the container.
While KFC Canada does not intend to integrate bitcoin as a permanent and long-term payment method as of current, the company has introduced its bitcoin campaign to address the rapidly increasing demand for bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market in general.
The strategy of KFC Canada to implement a unique campaign involving one of the fastest evolving technologies and forms of money in bitcoin has been massively successful, as the company obtained significant mainstream exposure from the media and social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Throughout the limited offering of bitcoin-themed fried chicken buckets, KFC consumers can utilize BitPay’s payment processing service to purchase the signature KFC fried chicken with bitcoin.
In total, the bitcoin-themed bucket of fried chicken costs just over $27, including the $20 price of the bucket itself, taxes, and shipping fee. Inclusive of bitcoin transaction fees, which are averaging at around $5 on major blockchain wallet platforms like Blockchain and Trezor, the KFC bitcoin-themed fried chicken bucket costs over $30.
Given the current state of the Bitcoin network and its underlying scalability issues, it will be difficult for any large-scale commercial fast food chain to accept bitcoin as a payment method. But, in the future, the integration of second-layer solutions could allow restaurants to enable bitcoin payments, if transaction fees can drop below $1.
Second-layer and off-chain scaling solutions including Lightning and Ethereum’s Plasma are capable of processing near-instant payments with significantly low fees. As such, in the long-term, fast food conglomerates like KFC accepting cryptocurrencies as major payment methods is a possibility.
McDonald’s and OmiseGo
In late 2017, McDonald’s Thailand partnered with OmiseGo, the Ethereum blockchain-based payment processing platform, to process payments of McDonald’s online orders using the immutable blockchain network of Ethereum.
Already, McDonald’s Thailand is processing large volumes of credit card payments on the OmiseGo blockchain network. The integration of McDonald’s Thailand of OmiseGo enables the company to seamlessly integrate cryptocurrency payment methods, if the company decides to address the growing adoption of bitcoin, Ethereum, and other digital currencies.
“The consumer’s experience begins right when they place the order online, and payments is a critical component of that experience. Offering highly secure, seamless payment options across all platforms and devices is key to delivering a seamless experience for McDonald’s customers.” said Jun Hasegawa, CEO & Founder of Omise.
The adoption and integration of blockchain technology by fast food chains like KFC and McDonald’s will drastically increase the awareness of millennials in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, which have evolved into a major asset class.