Maricoin, the world’s first LGBT+ cryptocurrency, officially launched last Friday in a week-long pilot test in an LGBT+ neighborhood in Madrid, Spain.  A total of 25 commercial establishments, spread across Spain’s major towns, are already planning to adopt it in concept with more planning to join upon the currencies official release.

Hair stylist and entrepreneur, Juan Belmont who came up with the idea said  he “had to do something” to use the LGBT+ community’s economic clout in the fight against homophobia. “It would give us power in this globalized and capitalist world,” said Belmonte. “We will be able to assist those who currently lack the same legal protections as we do.”

According to Maricoin’s Chief Executive Francisco Alvarez, there are already 8,000 people waiting to buy the cryptocurrency before it starts trading. Backed by Miami-based venture capital firm Borderless Capital, the initiative aims to have Maricoin be used as payment in establishments that will sign an “equality manifesto.” The said manifesto basically defends the rights of LGBT+ people and “everyone suffering from exclusion, and advocates a “social, ethical, transversal and transparent economy.”

The short-term goal of this digital token initiative is to raise $1 million; this money is supposedly going to be utilized to fund Gay Pride Day in 2022. This digital currency’s creators guarantee that all monies make from this token will be put to good use in the community.

Maricoin’s name, is derived from a homophobic slur in Spanish, is a play on words that some may find offensive.

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