An unusual and undoubtedly interesting announcement has been made; that a popular crypto tech company will introduce the world’s first beer vending machine running on cryptocurrency tokens.
Civic
Even though, the technology and the sole idea of beer vending machine may indicate the industry of the project behind it, it needs to be noted that Civic has nothing to do with beverage market. Even their marketing manager clarifies that they are “definitely not in the beer-vending business.” Civic’s mission is to provide every person on Earth with a digital identity that they can use to interact privately and securely with the world. “We envision a world where people can decide who they want to share their personal information with and what information gets shared.”
Beer vending machine
It’s been recently announced that Civic together with Anheuser-Busch, have built a prototype of crypto beer vending machine, in order to demonstrate the utility of blockchain-based identity verification schemes. Titus Capilnean from Civic told CoinDesk in an interview: “We’ve been thinking about practical ways of bringing crypto technology to a more mainstream audience, and how can we go so so niche that it’s so easy to understand for a regular individual. Proof of age seemed like the best low-hanging fruit.”
They plan to showcase the machine at CoinDesk’s Consensus 2018 which takes place next week. It will be the perfect opportunity for Civic to show in what practical ways their project can be used. The identity check could be useful in other cases. “It’s not limited to just beer, it could be for any kind of age-restricted product. Unmanned entrance to casinos, and then for the vending machines, we can see this going into concerts, ballgames, venues, conferences.”
