These days being vegan is becoming more mainstream, with celebrities like Beyoncé and Ellen DeGeneres and others adopting the lifestyle. Veganism means rejecting all animal-based foods, cosmetics and clothing.
VeganNation is a new online community for those following a plant-based lifestyle that is taking things to the next level with Vegancoin – a new, cruelty-free, cryptocurrency.
The cost of meat production is one of the driving factors in the rise of veganism. There are many doubts concerning the economic and environmental viability of producing vast quantities of meat and dairy.
A global movement towards a meat free diet would have direct effects on the environment by reducing greenhouse gasses by around two thirds.
Health-wise, it is anticipated that a plant-based diet will reduce the amount spent on health care systems and may save up to 8million lives by the year 2050.
VeganNation
VeganNation has now introduced its own vegan-friendly cryptocurrency in its online marketplace, making it the very first community platform for vegans to do so.
The platform will provide a forum for sharing vegan-based content, and to buy products and services online using the new currency.
VeganCoin uses smart contracts, a type of block-chain technology and plan to announce an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in the near future. An ICO is like a stock issue and will enable them to raise money through cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
Isaac Thomas is the CEO and co-founder of VeganNation and is hoping that the platform will encourage others to adopt the lifestyle as he did two years ago.
Speaking about the need to look at reducing the levels of meat and dairy consumption, he said the aim of VeganNation was to make moving over to a plant-based lifestyle easier and more accessible.
Isaac sees the currency as a vital building block of the new VeganNation; a nation that he says will be based on ideology and lifestyle rather than geography and that by funding the using block-chain technology it will become an empowered and influential community.
Just as a vegan chooses a restaurant or retail outlet based on a cruelty-free assessment, they will also choose a cryptocurrency using the same criteria.
VeganNation will provide the sort of transparent ecosystem so users can be sure their currency is cruelty-free, making it more attractive to the vegan community.
However, not everyone is convinced that this will be the case and accuses VeganNation of simply jumping on the Bitcoin bandwagon. There have been concerns raised that there can be no guarantee that the new cryptocurrency will, in fact, be cruelty-free.
Cryptocurrencies by their nature anonymize the users so it will be very difficult to monitor and control which markets are accessed and by whom.
In the past, cryptocurrency has been implicated in funding many illegal activities such as terrorism, pornography and drugs. It would seem wise for any vegan community to be wary of putting its name to something that can easily be used to harm.
However, some people are optimistic about VeganCoin’s prospects seeing it as a way people can invest and make money whilst still being true to their core beliefs and be part of building a successful online community for trading goods and services.
Understand what you’re buying
It is recommended that people look at how effective it is before they buy the new currency because it is unclear how this has any benefit over and above the normal e-commerce mechanisms.
Speaking on behalf of VeganNation, Thomas says he is happy to accept criticism because it makes them look at things in new ways in order to continue making an impact on the future.
