Bitcoin Daily: Walmart China Uses Blockchain For Food Sales; Would-Be Fed Member Moore To Create His Own Crypto Bank

Bitcoin startup Lolli announced that it has struck a new partnership with Hotels.com, joining Lolli’s existing partners Booking.com, Priceline, Hilton and Marriott.

“We are leveraging our Hotels.com and Booking.com partnerships to begin international expansion in the coming months,” Lolli CEO Alex Adelman told CoinDesk about his company’s plans for the next six months. “Canada has been in high demand, and we think that’s going to be a great test market for us. That will help us expand to other countries as well.”

Lolli allows its users to earn bitcoin rewards for online purchases. For trips that cost customers several thousand dollars, some Lolli users have earned more than $100 in bitcoin rewards.

“We want that number to grow,” Adelman said. “Now we’re starting to test content for teaching people what ‘stacking stats’ means. … Hopefully, someday 90 percent of our customers will be new because we want to make the market bigger.”

In other news, Walmart China, China Chain Store & Franchise Association (CCFA), PwC, Inner Mongolia Kerchin Co., Ltd., and VeChain, have announced the launch of the Walmart China Blockchain Traceability Platform, built on the VeChainThor blockchain.

In addition, the first batch of 23 product lines that have been tested and launched on the platform have been revealed, with another 100 product lines set to be released by the end of the year.

“As the world-leading enterprise public blockchain platform, VeChain aims to empower enterprises in the large-scale digitization process by providing safe and mature blockchain deployment solutions and promoting the wide application of blockchain technology. We achieve this while putting forward new insights for the development of the businesses’ ecosystems. The launch of the Blockchain Traceability Platform by Walmart China, the world-class retail giant, is of great significance to the commercial application of blockchain technology. VeChain will work with Walmart China to actively take heed of the call of the government, by utilizing technology to promote the traceability of fresh food, and to provide innovative solutions for the traceability platform through digital technology, so as to generate more transparent and reassuring consumption experience,” Kevin Feng, chief operating officer of VeChainThor, said in a press release.

And economist Stephen Moore, who recently lost out on a bid to join the board of the Federal Reserve, wants to launch his own mini-Fed through the creation of a cryptocurrency product that aims to be “the world’s decentralized central bank.”

Moore joined a group of entrepreneurs who are creating what is being described as a new type of central bank that aims to stabilize cryptos like bitcoin.

“I’m really excited about doing this,” Moore said, according to FOX Business. “I hope it makes me rich.”