Lolli Bags Big Partnership, Helps to Drive Bitcoin Adoption
To most consumers, getting their hands on Bitcoin (BTC) is an arduous task. For those that aren’t so-called “crypto natives”, onboarding onto an exchange that doesn’t carry that same brand name as, say, E*Trade or TD Ameritrade’s Think or Swim may seem risky, especially when you involve passport details and other personal information. But, there have been companies trying to change this moat, so to speak.
One of these is Lolli, a Bitcoin-centric rewards service that acts much like browser extensions Honey or Rakuten Rewards. Today, the company revealed that it would be partnering with major grocery chains, marking one of its most massive partnerships to date.
Speaking to Yahoo Finance, the chief executive of the startup Alex Adelman revealed that his firm is teaming up with Albertsons and Safeway — two popular chains in North America. Safeway has 900 stores; Albertsons has some 2,300.
While the details of the partnership have yet to be fully released, the firm is expected to be offering up to a 3.5% rebate on transactions at the grocery chains, pretty much allowing for investors to rack up dozens of dollars worth of Bitcoin over the course of a year’s digital grocery shopping trips.
This partnership follows one with Hotels.com — a leading travel service that gets over 55 million visits a month according to SimilarWeb data.
Hotels.com joins Priceline, Hotwire, Hilton, the Marriott, and many other travel-centric partners of Lolli. The travel service brings its 325,000 listed hotels and properties, which exist in 19,000 locations, to the table, giving Bitcoin-friendly consumer countless options to travel the globe in return for some juicy BTC kickback.
Lolli is hoping to capitalize on the massive travel industry, which it claims netted over $1.1 trillion in the U.S. alone during 2018. The company claims that if 5% of this $1.1 trillion sum was routed through Lolli and thus Hotels.com, travelers could have made back about “$1,925,000,000 worth of Bitcoin (~170,354 BTC)” just by downloading the web browser application. To some, not using Lolli is just irresponsible.
Why Lolli?
Lolli was built by devotees to the “stacking sats (satoshis)” movement, which involves Bitcoin diehards that wish to accumulate the cryptocurrency as much possible, usually on a periodic basis. Their ranks include popular commentators in the industry, including Marty Bent, Mr. Hodl, and The Bitcoin Rabbi.
But what’s the deal here?
Well, those that are stacking sats are under the impression that Bitcoin will become a widely-used currency and store of value, making it nonsensical to not accumulate the asset when it’s still young. This ties in with the investment strategy of dollar-cost averaging (DCA), which sees investors spread out purchases over a period of time to reduce risk and increase potential returns.
Photo by Scott Warman on Unsplash
