
McDonald's Unveils Limited Edition MacCoin to Celebrate 50 Years of the Big Mac - whalesalad
http://news.mcdonalds.com/news-releases/news-release-details/big-mac-50-us
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orastor
A funny perspective from a Venezuela employee

[https://i.imgur.com/i6tLCrv.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/i6tLCrv.jpg)

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fredley
It took me a while to realise this was _not_ a cryptocurrency.

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mwsherman
Some background, The Economist uses the Big Mac as a measure of purchasing
power: [https://www.economist.com/news/2018/07/11/the-big-mac-
index](https://www.economist.com/news/2018/07/11/the-big-mac-index)

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fenwick67
Will this effect the Big Mac index?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index)

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bufferoverflow
It will likely be more valuable than a Big Mac though, due to its collectable
and limited nature. Just because it can be exchanged for a Big Mac, doesn't
mean that's its value. Just like silver dollars are worth more than a dollar.

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adrian_mrd
"The Collectible MacCoin is First Fully Food-Backed Global Currency" \- The PR
hype train is in full effect with that sentence.

Like most PR spin, I understand what they are trying to state with "Food-
backed" but it's such a meaningless parameter*

* except to PR teams, of course!

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almost_usual
"The MacCoin transcends currencies to commemorate our global iconic burger
while giving customers all over the world a chance to enjoy a Big Mac on us"

there you go...

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ocdtrekkie
So it's collectable, but has "value" through a promotion where you surrender
the collectible for one sandwich only available through 2018. This is so
weird, why would anyone redeem them?

It's like McDonald's thought it'd be fun to join the make-your-own-currency
craze, but wanted to ensure it didn't have any actual tradeable financial
value that could subject them to banking regulations.

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patejam
> This is so weird, why would anyone redeem them?

I'm confused, you would keep it?

It's just a buy-one-get-one-free campaign.

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LyndsySimon
I think it's a safe assumption that they'll be worth more as collectibles than
as burgers.

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patejam
Why? There's going to be 6.2 million of them. Who's going to want to buy them?
And more importantly, who's going to go through the trouble of keeping them
and selling them for any kind of minor profit?

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wahern
6.2 million _globally_. I can't find figures for total number of Big Macs sold
each day globally, but I'm guessing it's in the ball park of 6.2 million. The
coins will likely be gone before the day is out.

Consider the following factoids in the context of exchange rates and PPP. In
other words, the ratio of foreign customers to domestic is probably far
greater than foreign revenue to domestic revenue.

Factoids:

* Roughly 1.5 million Big Macs sold each day in the U.S. alone. [https://expandedramblings.com/index.php/mcdonalds-statistics...](https://expandedramblings.com/index.php/mcdonalds-statistics/)

* U.S. accounts for less than half of global revenues. See [https://www.statista.com/topics/1444/mcdonalds/](https://www.statista.com/topics/1444/mcdonalds/) and [https://www.statista.com/statistics/219453/revenue-of-the-mc...](https://www.statista.com/statistics/219453/revenue-of-the-mcdonalds-corporation-by-geographic-region/)

* They serve over 60 million customers globally each day. [http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2012/04/30/13-Disturb...](http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2012/04/30/13-Disturbing-Facts-About-McDonalds)

