Coffee, this is the name of the new cryptocurrency that was introduced in Colombia last weekend. It should help coffee growers in particular. BBC Mundo wrote, among other things, that the price of coffee beans on the world market fell to its lowest level in ten years this May, but consumers in Western countries are paying more and more for a cup of coffee.
Johan Ramirez, in charge of promoting the project in Colombia, said: "Because of the cryptocurrency boom and the crisis in the coffee industry, we decided to launch the first virtual currency, covered by the production of our coffee beans." Coffee unions from Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, the USA and Britain are also invited to participate. Colombia is the third largest producer of coffee beans after Brazil and Vietnam. It is becoming increasingly difficult for growers to grow and sell coffee beans profitably. The authors of the project expect the cryptocurrency to help growers buy machines or fertilizers at better prices, expand their distribution channels or increase the selling prices of coffee. "We will open virtual wallets and launch an application accessible through Android and iOS," Ramirez said.
The project is supposed to include a network of shops or cafes, where customers would pay for coffee with this digital currency. The initial coffee rate is one dollar, but the project's authors expect it to climb up to $ 110. The Colombian Young Coffee Growers Association is also involved in the coffee cryptocurrency project, which sees the future of the coffee currency as optimistic. Indeed, it will not be the first cryptocurrency associated with agricultural crops. There are already cryptocurrencies based on the legal cannabis industry, eg potcoin, tokes (TKS) or cannabiscoin (CANN). According to some opinions, the cryptocurrency of coffee will not solve the problem of price asymmetry in the coffee industry. Fernando Morales, for example, on an international initiative for Café for Change, suggests that countries where coffee is grown should be merged into a new organization, OCAFE, to defend the interests of coffee beans growers.
