It may sound like baloney, but American meat maker Oscar Mayer has entered the cryptocurrency space – sort of.

The company announced on Monday the unveiling of "Bacoin," which it is calling "the first-ever cryptocurrency backed by the gold standard of Oscar Mayer Bacon."

With the initiative, Oscar Mayer is offering bacoins as a kind of online incentive to get users promoting the brand's meat products on social media and email. Through the company's official website, users "mine" bacoins that become worth more – denominated by slices of bacon – as consumer awareness is increased. Accompanying the campaign is a new commercial pitching the bacoin.

Bacoins can then be cashed out by customers for real packs of bacon, according to the company. As of press time, the value of a single bacoin is worth three slices of the company's bacon, according to its official price tracker.

"Oscar Mayer is the gold standard of bacon because of our dedication to hand-selecting the best cuts and then naturally sugar curing and naturally hardwood smoking our bacon," the company's brand manager, Matt Riezman said in a statement.

With the move, the 130-year-old Oscar Mayer becomes the latest food company to jump on the cryptocurrency branding bandwagon. Back in January, KFC Canada launched a bitcoin-themed promotion that saw it selling a so-called "Bitcoin Bucket" to select customers.

Image via YouTube/Oscar Mayer