Let me be clear: Walmart has not announced a $ 1 billion purchase of Bitcoin. But it will and I want to tell you what will happen when it does.
MicroStrategy, Square, and Coinbase are multimillion-dollar companies trading on NASDAQ with large pockets of Bitcoin, but everyday Americans might care less. If you ask your average Joe how he feels about Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy purchase of 91,326 bitcoins, you will likely get a “What is Bitcorn?” and “Michael who?”
Walmart, on the other hand, is a different story because it is the epitome of the American working class. Built on the foundation of America’s mom and pop, it’s now the world’s largest company, with sales of $ 548 billion in 2020. When Walmart puts $ 1 billion in Bitcoin on its balance sheet, you’ve got the same average attention from Joe. It will create the ultimate commitment for Bitcoin to American workers and spark a global money paradigm shift that is long overdue.
As Walmart’s tentacles penetrate 24 countries, a bitcoin tidal wave will explode through the world of e-commerce and brick-and-mortar retail. Walmart sources products from more than 100 countries and brings globalization to Central America. Instead of dealing with complex currency conversions with global suppliers, Walmart will accept Bitcoin, which will negate the headache of dealing with dozens of fiat currencies. This simplifies bookkeeping and streamlines operations. With no middleman bankers handling transactions, the only thing separating Walmart from its global partners is the oceans (if the miners don’t cook them first).
Once Walmart dips its toe in the proverbial Number Go Up pond, the obvious next step is to roll out the adoption of Bitcoin in more than 11,000 locations. We’re talking about a full knot at each checkout. Let’s say customers who choose to pay with Bitcoin receive a simple 10 percent discount (on top of Walmart’s already everyday low prices). For our average Joe who lives from paycheck to paycheck, a 10 percent discount is a game changer. Legions of couponing soccer mothers will figure out how to pay with Bitcoin and will soon find out that holding anything other than BTC is a losing game. At this point, Walmart is buying Bitcoin at the company level and the average cost in US dollars via customer purchases.
If Walmart’s employees are offering Bitcoin as a discounted payment method, they will undoubtedly start demanding “Pay Me In Bitcoin”. This means that as the paychecks show, there is a new motherfucking floor set every pay period. Let’s do a little back-of-the-napkin math. Let’s say that all 2.2 million Walmart employees have a minimum wage and work about 30 hours a week. Currently, the federal minimum wage is $ 7.25 per hour.
$ 7.25 per hour x 30 hours per week x 2.2 million employees = $ 478.5 million per week.
Now let’s say employees have the option to put 10 percent of that paycheck into Bitcoin. That would be $ 47.85 million per week paid out in Bitcoin. That’s $ 2.48 billion a year paid out in Bitcoin. That’s around 45,090 BTC (with BTC at USD 55,000) per year. This calculates the most conservative number of minimum wage employees in a US company. Millions of Americans who have watched their savings melt away like ice cube will see Bitcoin empower them to convert dirty fiat steam into clean, hard, and non-meltable money. Walmart will put Bitcoin in every American’s wallet. As soon as Americans see their bitcoin number going up and their fiat number going down, they will think, “in hindsight it was inevitable”.
The hyperbitcoinization that will take place within the Walmart corporation cannot be contained and will spill over into the society of the Walton family. As an Arkansan, I can tell you that no other family has more influence over the state of Arkansas than the Waltons, who are the majority shareholders of Walmart (okay, maybe the Clintons, but I don’t want to be murdered). The Waltons are infamous boosters from the University of Arkansas. The family gave the school $ 195 million in 2020 alone. It is only a matter of time before a more than generous and uninterrupted stream of Bitcoin donations flows to the university’s foundation. The ripple effect of a university that has such a large stake in the bitcoin game will be a whirlwind for similar universities as they add BTC to their balance sheets. The introduction of Bitcoin is the only chance universities have to stay afloat. You have a choice of sinking or swimming, conforming or drowning in the polluted sea of fiat formation.
By investing cash reserves in Bitcoin, valuing goods and services in Bitcoin and paying its employees in Bitcoin, Walmart will develop the Austrian economic vision of the best monetary return. Walmart will single-handedly deliver a circular bitcoin economy. The company will give the average Joe the opportunity to break into the Bitcoin standard and take the world of hyperbitcoinization one step closer. It’s not about if, but when and for how long the $ 380 billion Walmart company wants to have fun staying poor.
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