BMW has said that it is preparing to integrate decentralized tech in two phases. First, it will integrate the new technology into its daily operations to get rid of complex and tedious paperwork, and the second phase would see the development of a customer loyalty program.
The German car manufacturer wants to integrate blockchain technology into its daily activities and operations. Moreover, it confirmed that it will set up a blockchain loyalty program for its clients in Thailand. The popular car manufacturer has partnered with blockchain infrastructure firm Coinweb to work as its decentralized architecture provider and BNB Chain to help in settling transactions.
Notably, the integration of blockchain technology into the BMW workflow will be implemented in two phases. First, the decentralized technology will be incorporated into BMW’s daily operations to automate the time-consuming manual procedures and smoothen the firm’s automobile financing services.
The second phase of the project would see Coinweb create a customized Web3 application for BMW’s customer loyalty program. This program will utilize a blockchain-based rewards scheme to incentivize BMW Group clients. A client’s tier and status in the ecosystem will be mainly determined by the loyalty rewards that they have acquired through different actions.
Owners can then use their rewards to buy goods and services from BMW and a linked ecosystem in the future. Binance’s native BNB Chain will be used in the settlement of transactions executed on the new network.
Talking about how clients will get rewarded under the forthcoming loyalty program, Coinweb CEO Toby Gilbert, told reporters that clients will get rewarded each time they have touchpoints with the BMW ecosystem, be it “buying a new car or they go for a service,” he explained further:
“Customers will be rewarded with loyalty points and they will be able to spend within the ecosystem. We hope that there will be a future global rollout but currently, our partnership is for Thailand.”
BMW Thailand’s leasing head Bjorn Antonsson mentioned that the company has been actively monitoring the progress of decentralized technology and its different use cases over the years. Antonsson hoped that the integration of blockchain technology in their daily activities would eliminate the manual paperwork and contribute toward the firm’s efficiency and transparency.
The interest of automobile manufacturers in decentralized technology is nothing new, and BMW has been involved with the technology since 2018. BMW first used blockchain technology to track its cobalt supply and guarantee its products are getting supplied using ethical practices. Besides BMW, another popular German car manufacturer Mercedes has actively utilized nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and crypto coins as promotional tools.
Alfa Romeo, an Italian carmaker, used blockchain technology to track car records, while Ferrari’s new deal has hinted at nonfungible token integration as well.