The newly-launched blockchain token for Zimbocash, a project that is developing a national decentralised currency network in Zimbabwe, has been listed on major international cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb Global with a free-floating price in trade.
The company’s head of communications and economist, Philip Haslam, said in a statement on Wednesday that all the elements of a powerful currency alternative for Zimbabwe were now in place, and it could not have come soon enough.
Haslam believes the Zimbabwean government is now insolvent with little borrowing capacity left.”The impact of the coronavirus pandemic has been catastrophic for the Zimbabwean financial system. The government has admitted that it is going to print money on a large scale to fund itself, which could push the country into hyperinflation,” he said.
“The Zimbabwe dollar was already collapsing with 500% inflation, before this crisis dealt a debilitating blow. We believe that Zimbocash is perfectly positioned to solve this problem by fixing the amount of money in the country using blockchain technology. Our aim is to provide sound money.”
While creating an alternative currency for an entire nation in crisis is an ambitious goal, Haslam said blockchain technology has been the game changer to enable this kind of project.
“In our view, Zimbocash is easily the most exciting new cryptocurrency project in the world right now. We are fulfilling the dream of bitcoin — we’re developing a peer-to-peer payments platform and facilitating on-the-ground trade in a country,” he said.
Haslam said for them to succeed they needed to build a network of scale, deliver on the technology and come up with a liquid market price that people can use as a reference in day-to-day trade.
“We’ve created an initial network and with the launch of the token and the listing on Bithumb Global, we’re delivering on the second two pillars. With an online wallet and currency that people can access, we believe that the network is now going to grow substantially,” he said.
Head of the Zimbocash subscriber network, Laswet Savadye, said the interest in the project in Zimbabwe was increasing exponentially.
“Zimbabwe is perhaps the only country where you would be able to establish a decentralised currency network of scale. Zimbabweans are desperate for a sound-money solution and there is no other alternative like Zimbocash,” Savadye said.
Over the last year, viral growth in registrations has been enough to enable Zimbocash to be listed on an offshore exchange and be tradeable with bitcoin and other recognised currencies.
“We’re incredibly proud that Bithumb Global has chosen to list us. They are regarded as one of the largest exchanges in the world with US$4 billion of transaction volume every month,” Savadye said.
“We’ve always felt that a liquid market price would get us substantially closer towards the dream of facilitating cross-border trade for Zimbabwe. With a giant like Bithumb Global choosing to list our Zimbocash token, that dream is now being realised.”
Originally from South Korea, the Bithumb Global exchange offers USDT and Bitcoin trading pairs with crypto investors from around the world. The exchange will market Zimbocash to their networks of international buyers.
Known by its trading ticker ZASH, the Zimbocash token is developed using the TRON Network decentralised platform using a TRC-10 contract. The system, fast enough to handle up to 2 000 transactions per second with a 15-second block time, is uniquely designed to enable a national decentralised currency to facilitate trade for an entire nation.
A total of 4,5 billion Zimbocash tokens have been created. The system uses a delegated proof of stake consensus algorithm to ensure that no single computer in the system can control the supply of money.