- Polygon Labs paid $4 million to lure coffee maker Starbucks to its network
- The funds went into the creation of Starbucks’ NFT-based loyalty program Odyssey
- Starbucks recently announced that it’s planning to sunset the program
Polygon Labs allegedly paid coffee giant Starbucks $4 million to integrate it into its network, according to insiders. Starbucks utilized these funds to introduce its NFT-based loyalty program named Odyssey, which, surprisingly, it intends to discontinue less than two years after its inception. Individuals familiar with the situation characterized this as Polygon Labs’ previous method of increasing platform usage, prompting concerns about whether this approach is the most effective strategy for promoting the Ethereum layer two protocol.
A Past Business Strategy
Speaking to Coindesk, the sources said that the payment stopped Starbucks from tapping other blockchains such as Bitcoin scaling layer Liquid Network, which wanted to host Odyssey.
People familiar with the matter, however, said that Polygon Labs’ deal with Starbucks is the blockchain firm’s past way of doing business which was adopted by “the previous leadership’s strategy.”
The entity further revealed that the web3 firm is now focusing on enhancing its tech stack rather than “inking partnerships.”
According to a Starbucks representative, the coffee maker will apply the lessons learned “to the future of this program,” although they didn’t describe what that future looks like or whether it involves blockchain technology.
Polygon Labs Secretly Funded DraftKings
This isn’t Polygon Labs’ first such attempt to bring prominent entities into the network. Last year, for example, it was revealed that it secretly funded DraftKings to run a validator node on the Polygon network.
It even went further to bend the rules to give the sports-betting firm special treatment. DraftKings didn’t honor its end of the bargain causing it to be eliminated from the validator pool.
With the Starbucks and DraftKings deals revealed, it’s unclear whether Polygon Labs has paid other players to be on the Polygon network.
