Walmart, through its joint venture Walmart Apollo, has filed a patent for a Walmart coin based on blockchain. The new cryptocurrency (“Walcoin”, anyone?), intended to be a stablecoin.

There have been several challenges to Bitcoin’s first-to-market dominance of the cryptocurrency space, including Ethereum and Zcash. However these stand-alone cryptocash startups will be facing a new challenge from a 500 pound gorilla, namely Facebook. (Some are already referring to this stablecoin as ‘FaceCoin’.)