International coffee chain Starbucks announced that it was closing its program that allowed customers to earn and purchase digital collectible stamps in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Starbucks says NFT: stop!
“Odyssey Beta”, as the program was called, will end on March 31. The company allowed its customers to engage in coffee-related games and challenges. In return, they received digital badges that could be used to access new services and interactive experiences.
Additionally, the marketplace where users exchanged their digital stamps, as well as the community's Discord server, will be closed. However, this does not mean completely cutting yourself off from NFTs:
The Odyssey market will be converted into the Nifty market. You can continue to buy, sell and transfer Odyssey stamps on the Nifty marketplace.
But let's get to the key issue. Why Starbucks decided to close the program. And actually… we don't know. More precisely: the company did not provide any reason. It only added that the brand must “prepare for what comes next.” So it's possible that this is a new version of the initiative or something similar.
The NFT program and its launch at a bad time
Starbucks launched its program in September 2022, during what is, importantly, a challenging time for the cryptocurrency industry. This occurred after the Terra ecosystem collapsed in May 2022 and just before FTX went bankrupt.
When Starbucks launched the program, it decided that NFTs would be based on the Polygon network. Proof-of-Work blockchains were immediately rejected. Reason? Too high energy consumption of the latter.
Starbucks will use more energy-efficient proof-of-stake blockchain technology developed by Polygon, which uses significantly less energy than first-generation proof-of-work blockchains
– it was then stated in the announcement.
So let's get back to the decision to close the program. Maybe the company decided that the interest in tokens was too low and hence the idea to end the initiative. In fact, the NFT market has lost its appeal. However, during the bull market we can see its renaissance.
