Fast-food chain Burger King Corp. has launched its own cryptocurrency as an alternative to traditional loyalty reward scheme.

WhopperCoin, as the new currency is aptly named, was launched in Russia earlier this week. Burger King said it’s giving away one free coin to customers for each ruble (1.7 cents) spent on Whopper burgers at its Russian stores.

Once they’ve amassed enough WhopperCoins, customers will then be able to use the coins in store to buy more burgers, fries and soft drinks, the company said. The BBC said the current price of a Whopper in Russia means customers will be able to claim one free burger for every six they buy using real cash.

In addition to the coins, Burger King will also release WhopperCoin wallets for both Android and iOS next month, allowing people to buy, sell and trade the coins amongst themselves. The BBC says Burger King forged a partnership with a cryptocurrency startup called Waves Platform to create its WhopperCoins. Waves, which said it has already generated a billion WhopperCoins, is handling all of the technical aspects involved in operating the currency, such as maintaining the blockchain ledger that tracks each transaction.

Customers will be able to claim their coins simply by scanning their receipt using the Burger King apps on their smartphones. WhopperCoin is similar to the original cryptocurrency Bitcoin, but one major difference is that Burger King retains overall control and can shut it down at any time, the BBC reported.

“Eating Whoppers now is a strategy for financial prosperity tomorrow,” Ivan Shestov, head of external communications at Burger King Russia, said in a quirky canned statement.

Burger King’s idea of using cryptocurrency as a reward scheme is a novel idea, and if successful it could well be copied by other brands, predicted one expert. “Reward points are actually a good use case for blockchains,” Professor Emin Gun Sirer, a director at the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts, said via Twitter.

So far, there have been 36 transactions made using WhopperCoin, according to Waves’ assets page.

Image: Mike Mozart/Flickr