The LGTBI collective (Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals, Bisexuals and Intersexuals) has launched maricoin, its own cryptocurrency that will start operating on December 31 and can be used in 25 establishments throughout Spain, according to Emprendedores.

Thus, the people who attend the New Year's Eve parties that are organized in the neighborhoods of Chueca (Madrid), Maspalomas (Gran Canaria), Ibiza or Barcelona will be the first to have the opportunity to pay for their drinks with maricoins at the LGTBI friendly establishments.

This project, born in Madrid, has the vocation of becoming a commonly used cryptocurrency in the community throughout the world. The market, then, that Maricoins wants to reach is immense, taking into account, moreover, that what is known as the pink economy has become a socioeconomic phenomenon that moves five billion dollars (about 4.4 million euros) annually. around the world.

At the moment, according to statements by the promoters collected by the magazine, “there is already a waiting list to obtain premium maricoins before the currency that can be accessed through the address bit.ly/maricoin is listed.”

An original idea of ​​John for God

Juan Belmonte, better known as Juan por Dios, the name of the chain of hairdressers that he runs, is the person behind the project, which has been joined by 25 other businessmen from the Chueca and Malasaña neighbourhoods.

The businessman, who chairs the initiative, stars in this video in which he explains what they are pursuing with this new cryptocurrency: “our own currency is going to unify us, it is going to give us power in this globalized capitalist world.”

Likewise, he defends that with maricoin they will be able to help other people who do not have the same rights and, therefore, "we need to be more united than ever and pay, use and transact with our own currency."

Regarding the operational part of the project and the development of the cryptocurrency, the maximum responsibility falls on Francisco Álvarez Cano, CEO of Maricoin and Startify, a company builder for the launch of emerging companies, as well as academic co-director of the Own Master Advanced in Innovation Models (MIAMI) at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM).

Maricoin is…

Maricoin is an alternative cryptocurrency with the Altcoin model (without a stable value associated with a 'fiat' currency, such as the dollar or the euro, but rather depends on supply and demand), developed with the technology of Algorand, the blockchain created by Silvio Micali, cryptographic expert, professor at MIT and winner of the Turig Prize. That is why the Maricoin project is one of the ten that have become part of the Algorand Miami Accelerator acceleration program, an ecosystem that has forced its creators to set it up in Miami.

Belonging to the Algorand environment will allow the Maricoin project to access financing from its investment arm, Borderless Capital, a venture capital fund aimed at promoting the "next generation" of decentralized projects on the Algorand blockchain. In addition, thanks to this fund, it opts to receive, next February, part of a million dollars (about 884,357 euros) of investment in a public round open to the 10 projects integrated in the Miami accelerator, which will provide them with financial lung to move forward with the global project.

Think big

On December 31 maricoin will be launched and will begin to be used in LGTBI friendly establishments. However, it is expected that it will not be until the beginning of the year when the cryptocurrency begins to be listed on the main markets that support Algorand.

The goal is to list on the world's largest exchange, Binance, which has as a rule not to list any cryptocurrency until it reaches at least 10,000 transactions, an amount that Maricoin hopes to exceed in a very short space of time.

The promoters of the project have explained to Entrepreneurs that the entry into said fund will be a turning point in the project and that it is in the next celebration of the Gay Pride party when they hope to reach definitive confirmation. The goal is clear: to finance with maricoins in 2022 the pride parties of the twenty main gay capitals of the world, a litmus test to validate the acceptance of the idea in the market.

At the national level, the promoters of the project are also in negotiations with Bit2Me and 2gether, and have closed alliances to join the leading networks in Brazil (bitfy) and Australia (Yieldly), Emprendedores publishes.

look to the future

The company set up to launch the project will be dissolved two years after its launch and will become a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization), a kind of cooperative through which the users of the cryptocurrency will assume the governance of the project. according to the established code.

The website, not yet operational, will work with the domain maricoin.coin, for transactions, and maricoin.org for the dissemination of the project to users, establishments – which sign a Manifesto for Equality and against all discrimination – and LGTBI associations, that will manage one of every four tokens issued to help the collective.