One of the concerns of cryptocurrency is the number of transactions. The number of transactions is used as a measure of how well the platform is running.
What if a coin transaction happens whenever you purchase your daily cup of coffee? Wouldn’t that allow a stable platform? These are the questions that the CEO of Coin Coffee, Mr. HakSoo Jeong, asked himself as he began his business.
– What’s the motivation for starting this business?
“When you purchase coin, you start to get nervous about when the exchange is going to go down, when the transactions are going to be blocked. Coin Coffee wanted to get rid of those worries. It started with the question ‘what if my neighborhood coffee shop allowed coin transactions?’ and as the answer, I decided ‘to actually start the coffee shop.’ It builds trust because you may drink as much coffee as you want based on your coin purchase.
When I first thought of the business, people around me were skeptic. Most of them would ask ‘will it work?’ and ‘if you think so, why not really try it.’ So eventually, I really decided to start it on my own.”
– What kind of platform is Coin Coffee?
“It’s basically a payment platform. You purchase coffee from a Coin Coffee shop, and as a ‘point’ system you get coins each time. You would use Koisk which you can use with cash, credit cards and Samsung Pay. And starting June 1st, you can also use CoinCoffeePay to purchase. Whichever type you use, you get 10% of purchase amount as coin point.
Until now, you had to exchange coins to other specific coins in order to use it. CoinCoffee maximizes convenience by allowing you to make the purchase without any additional verification or exchange, but with a single barcode scan.”
– How is cryptocurrency used?
“For actual payments and for the points. If you purchase coffee with cryptocurrency, this becomes a transaction. So more purchases with coins mean more transactions.”
– I imagine some shop owners aren’t familiar with cryptocurrency or blockchain.
“I don’t try to explain cryptocurrency in depth to people who don’t know it. Instead, I simply explain to the shop owners that the HQ will provide the points which is basically a marketing tool, allowing the customers who visited already to re-visit, and people who never came can come. If I tell them I want Coin Coffee to be the major brand of coffee business, the owners accept it.”
– How many shops are there so far?
“With the first shop in Samsung-dong, we have second shop in Gwangleung Techno-valley and third one near the Seoul Tech station. Even with COVID-19 going on, we have at least one store opening per month. We have another shop opening this week.”
– It seems like there are various platforms, are there?
“For now, we are focused on coffee purchases. Starting in June, the platform supports some other items such as digitalized artworks which will also be exhibited in the shops as well. We plan on expanding the platform to support taking in religious donations as well.”
– How did you come across blockchain?
“I worked for IT company where I learnt the advantages of blockchain, and experiencing Solidity program development really got me hooked. Since I was in the IT fields for a long time, it came naturally to me.”
– What’s the goal of Coin Coffee?
“This year, I want to open 50 shops. And within four years, I want a thousand shops opened.”
