Cryptocurrency: Thailand’s biggest department store chain starts trial of its own C-Coin virtual currency

Central Retail Corp., the largest shopping center developer in Thailand, has rolled out its own cryptocurrency called the C-Coin for trial. For the testing, the company has been distributing the crypto coin to its 80,000 employees around the world.

The retail store firm is encouraging employees to use them, and this will be assessed. The trial is being carried out with the plan of offering the C-Coin to its customers and the public in the future. Apparently, Central Retail Corp. is mulling on making its blockchain-based currency an alternative for cash when shopping in its stores.

According to CoinDesk, the department store chain’s C-Coin may already be implemented once the testing with employees is completed and there are no issues with it. Then again, Kowin Kulruchakorn, chief innovation officer for the company’s tech unit, Central Tech, admitted that they have not yet sorted out how they would distribute the virtual currency to customers.

Central Tech created the company’s C-Coin, and it is also the one managing all of Central’s cross-channel business model and e-commerce systems. In any case, Bloomberg reported that Central Retail is handing out the C-Coin to workers as a reward for excellent job performance on top of their regular pay.

In other words, the bonus is given in the form of cryptocurrency, and recipients can use them when paying for meals in restaurants, shopping, or availing services from Central Retail’s partner establishments that are participating in the trial. It was added that the retailer’s long-term objective for the use of virtual currency is to slowly shift to cashless transactions in public and venture into the e-commerce business.

“We see a lot of potential for the C-Coin and no matter if our customers are migrating online or going back to malls offline, we must find the best ways to reach them and create spending,” Kulruchakorn said in a statement. “There are so many different opportunities that blockchain technology can bring us.”

Finally, CoinTelegraph mentioned that Thailand’s Central Retail Corp is the biggest shopping mall developer in the country. It is currently operating over 2,000 stores in Thailand, and this consists of department stores, high-end shopping outlets, and more. It is also running businesses overseas, such as the La Rinascente department store in Italy, Big C supermarket chain in Vietnam, and Illum in Denmark.