Maricoin launches as first cryptocurrency for LGBTQ community

A new, alternative cryptocurrency aimed at supporting the LGBTQ+ community recently began a weeklong trial run in Spain, and plans to expand to wider markets in the coming months. Maricoin — whose name plays on a Spanish homophobic slur — launched last week with the cooperation of 10 businesses in Chueca, a neighborhood in Madrid known for its queer-positive culture.

"Since we move this economy, why shouldn't our community profit from it, instead of banks, insurance companies or big corporations that often don't help LGBT+ people?" Maricoin cofounder, Juan Belmonte, said in an interview with the Thomas Reuters Foundation.

The ultimate goal, explains Belmonte, is to create a global network of progressive-minded organizations and businesses that accept Maricoin as a means to promote and support queer rights transnationally. Eventually, Belmonte hopes the cryptocurrency could provide “microcredits” for things such as a queer-friendly cafe in South America, or to even help refugees fleeing dangerous countries.

Probably a better goal than Blockbuster — Although starting a queer-focused cryptocurrency might strike us as a bit opportunistic (not to mention logistically questionable), we’ll take that over a groups recent attempt to bring Blockbuster back from the dead as some kind of quasi-utopian blockchain streaming service. Blockbuster DAO aims to purchase the nostalgia-laden company’s rights away from its current owners at Dish Network, then turn the iconic namesake into a decentralized business for streaming entertainment.

But even that isn’t quite as perplexing as RadioShack’s recent, somewhat mysterious reemergence as a cryptocurrency exchange “bringing cryptocurrency to the mainstream.” Yes, you read that correctly. RadioShack, of all things. We live in strange, decentralized times.