3 Monumental Ways an LGBT Cryptocurrency Could Impact the World
This January, Hornet announced the launch of the LGBT Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to harness the power and potential of blockchain technology — alongside other technology — for the global good of the LGBT community. In other words, Hornet plans to release an LGBT cryptocurrency coin, like Bitcoin, but one that’s specific to the LGBT community. It’s called LGBT Token.
It’s hard now to even picture how an LGBT cryptocurrency coin will manifest itself. What will it do? How could it possibly help you and the greater LGBT community?
Right now it seems like cryptocurrency really benefits only one group of people: “crypto bros” — straight Silicon Valley techies in their 20s and 30s. They are the only ones profiting from buying, trading and investing in cryptocurrency.
The New York Times published an article last month describing the crypto phenomenon perfectly, titled “Everyone Is Getting Hilariously Rich and You’re Not.”
But the goal of the LGBT Token differs from previous ventures. It’s not to invest. It’s not to make you rich (sorry, bros), but it’s to help the LGBT community in ways never thought possible before.
Here are 3 monumental ways LGBT cryptocurrency could impact the world:
1. An LGBT cryptocurrency could be sent quickly, anonymously and to anyone with a smartphone.
One of the many ways crypto differs from traditional money is that it can be anonymous, and anyone who has a smartphone can access the crypto exchange quickly. There is huge potential with this technology to help LGBT people across the globe who need quick, anonymous access to money.
Take, for example, the recent wave of detention and torture of gay men in Chechnya. Hornet was at the forefront of helping those men in Chechnya, providing behind-the-scenes work to help evacuate over 70 Chechen men to safety. Now imagine there was a way to send currency, anonymously, to these men through their smartphones. Let’s say we could transfer the LGBT Token to these men through Hornet, which these men are already using. Then they could use the LGBT cryptocurrency, anonymously, to buy a plane ticket out of Chechnya, through airlines accepting LGBT Token. These men, in theory, could be out of Chechnya within 24 hours.
2. An LGBT cryptocurrency could raise huge support for LGBT causes.
You know how there’s a transaction fee with credit cards, usually 2-3%? Imagine if the transaction fees were less — say, 1% — but all the money raised from those fees went directly to LGBT causes. Keeping with the prior Chechen example, the money raised from that 1% fee could be used to help gay men flee Chechnya.
The money, however, could also be used for pretty much anything else relating to the LGBT community. Imagine if users of the LGBT Token were able to vote on which causes they wanted to donate the money to. This “fund” has the potential to be the largest dedicated LGBT social responsibility program in the world.
3. An LGBT cryptocurrency could use LGBT spending power to create greater acceptance.
If the LGBT community were a country, it would be the world’s fourth-largest economy in the world, with a GDP of $4.6 trillion. Yet so many places don’t cater to the LGBT community (or outright won’t serve or sell to us). The LGBT Token could change that by hitting companies where it hurts: their wallets.
As Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS researcher Erik Lamontagne summed up succinctly, “In simple terms, the more homophobic you are, the more and more it will cost your economy.” LGBT people will be able to spend their money on organizations that support them. These organizations will also be able to then cater products to the LGBT community.
Who’s ready to live in a world with LGBT cryptocurrency?
Featured image by dem10 via iStock
