This is the first cryptocurrency for the LGBTQ+ community, Maricoin, which launched on New Year’s Eve, and aims to use the community’s economic power to help “change the world.”
“Why can’t our community reap the benefits of this economy, rather than banks, insurance firms, or other corporations that often fail to assist LGBT+ people?” In an interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation in London, co-founder Juan Belmonte revealed to the organization’s philanthropic arm.
Many companies that have signed an equality manifesto, including pubs, restaurants, beauty salons, and bookstores, have expressed interest in using Maricoin as payment, and supporters hope that the digital currency will be available for trading as early as this year. A total of 25 commercial establishments, spread across Spain’s major towns, are already planning to adopt it in concept.
Its name, derived from a homophobic epithet in Spanish, is a play on words that aims to give financial autonomy to the LGBT community. This digital currency’s creators guarantee us that the money they make from this token will be put to good use in the community. To some, this may appear to be nothing more than a clever marketing ploy.
“It would give us power in this globalised and capitalist world,” said Belmonte, a hairdresser and entrepreneur. “We will be able to assist those who currently lack the same legal protections as we do.” In Chueca, a gay and lesbian enclave in Madrid, the coin was unveiled on December 24, according to Investing.
More than 8,000 people have reportedly signed up for a waiting list to purchase Maricoin before the cryptocurrency begins trading with the help of Miami-based startup financing firm Borderless Capital. The short-term goal of this digital token initiative is to raise $1 million; this money is supposedly going to be utilised to fund Gay Pride Day in 2022.