Crypto-curious corporations struggle to find right recipe

Four years ago, fried-chicken chain KFC tweeted from its Canadian account that it would accept bitcoin as payment for its "buckets."

The company told AFP its tongue-in-cheek campaign - "digital tender for chicken tenders" - sold out in an hour and the chain has not taken crypto payments since, but online articles regularly recycle the claim that KFC "accepts" bitcoin.

Many other companies have tried to harness crypto payments before abandoning their efforts, Tesla and Dell among them.

Bitcoin will almost certainly never be practical for everyday purchases because its value fluctuates wildly, and each transaction is expensive, energy-hungry and takes at least half an hour.

"No one's going to walk into a KFC to buy a chicken burger and then have to wait 30 minutes for a payment," South African developer and crypto expert Andre Cronje told AFP.

But there are now thousands of smaller cryptocurrencies with faster processing times and more stable prices.

Analysts say the total market value of cryptocurrencies has now topped $2 trillion, roughly half of which is bitcoin.

Companies are gagging to get in on the act and developers like Cronje are building the infrastructure to enable the virtual coins to be used to pay for everyday items.

But public buy-in is crucial, and corporations seem to be struggling to find the perfect formula.

Microsoft typifies the emerging pattern of big companies dabbling in crypto. The first rule: keep it at arm's length from the core business. The tech giant has stressed that shareholders will not be exposed to the ups and downs of crypto prices.

PayPal and Apple, two other crypto-curious corporations, have made similar pledges to their shareholders.

To keep crypto off...