![Maricoin, cryptocurrency bet on to change the world with its message Maricoin, cryptocurrency bet on to change the world with its message](https://varindia.com/storage/news/uploads/2018/02/61d1d57e1d61d.jpg)
The founders of Maricoin, first LGBTQ+ cryptocurrency that was launched with an aim to harness the community’s economic power with the aim of “changing the world”.
Maricoin is backed by Miami-based venture capital firm Borderless Capital, and the initiative’s chief executive, Francisco Alvarez, said 8,000 people were already on a waiting list seeking to buy maricoins before the currency starts trading.
The maricoin, a play on words taken from a homophobic slur in Spanish, was launched on Friday in a week-long pilot test involving 10 businesses in Chueca, known as the LGBTQ neighbourhood of Spain’s capital, Madrid.
Maricoin’s backers are aiming for the virtual currency to start trading early next year, paving the way for it to be used as a means of payment at LGBTQ-friendly businesses and events worldwide.
Belmonte, a hairdresser and entrepreneur, said the idea for the LGBTQ cryptocurrency came to him while he was partying with friends at Madrid’s Pride event in July this year.
But he traces the project’s origins back to 2017, when the ultraconservative group HazteOir launched a campaign against transgender rights by sending a bus around Spain bearing the words: “Boys have penises, girls have vulvas. Do not be fool
ed.”
The conservative Christian group’s campaign was swiftly banned by Spanish authorities, but Mr. Belmonte said it made him realize he “had to do something” to help leverage the LGBTQ community’s economic clout in the fight against homophobia.
The global LGBTQ market is huge, with research by Swiss bank Credit Suisse suggesting it would rank as the world’s fourth-largest economy, behind Japan but ahead of Germany in terms of purchasing power.
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