Although it’s still early days for Pakistan to fully embrace cryptocurrency, one major player has recently come to light as Pakistani merchants begin accepting Pakcoin as a form of payment. Only recently have cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin become more popular in Pakistan, following a period of uncertainty and controversy about its true potential as a secure currency.
Digital currency popularity has made a sharp increase this year, with investors flocking with confidence to speculate on this relatively volatile currency. Technology enthusiasts have also begun importing specialized hardware to mine Bitcoins, a process by which transactions can be verified and added to the blockchain, which is how new bitcoins are released.
With so much being said about cryptocurrencies internationally, Pakistan is now also catching on to this new technology. Of the very few Pakistani ventures in cryptocurrency that have come to light is Pakcoin, a digital currency with a very special focus on Pakistani consumers and businesses. Pakcoin was launched nearly 2.5 years ago, but it didn’t really come to public attention until a hospital in Pakistan began accepting it as an accepted form of payment.
Infact, the Abid hospital was the first private hospital to accept cryptocurrency earlier this year throughout the whole of Asia. Following its initial success, over ten more commercial retailers have announced the introduction of Pakcoin as a form of payment, and is currently being used by customers to pay for their purchases.
Mr. Abu Shaheer, the founder of Pakcoin, recently commented in an interview that he had been working on a number of computer projects for over 15 years, while describing himself as a computer geek. He added: “Cryptocurrencies have been around for a number of years, though I only truly realized their true potential back in 2013.”
The man behind Pakistan´s leading cryptocurrency stated that the inspiration behind Pakcoin came from Auroracoin, an Icelantic based digital currency, which he came across in 2014. He added: “I also realized that as time passed, Bitcoin would actually become too expensive for the majority of Pakistanis to use, and with Pakistan being the fourth largest global freelancer market, our country would soon need its own digital currency, so I proceeded to put my Pakcoin project into action.”
According to Pakcoin’s founder, the cryptocurrency is based on Litecoin core, described as a peer-to-peer digital currency enabling instant, low cost payments to anybody in the world. He added: “Just like Litecoin, Pakcoin is an open source worldwide payment network, and completely decentralized from any central authority. The digital network is completely secured by mathematics and empowers people to have complete control over their own finances.” He also said that their main focus today was to make the cryptocurrency a lot more adaptable in a real life scenario, similar to POS payments and merchant apps.
Mr. Shaheer also mentioned that they planned to make Pakcoin an acceptable form of payment in online and local stores all over Pakistan, but that it would take some time to put into action. He added: “We plan on educating a large segment of the Pakistani population as well as government officials who are all still unaware about the benefits of cryptocurrencies. Despite the work and effort needed to make Pakcoin a household name, I am very hopeful about the future of Pakcoin as Pakistan´s leading cryptocurrency.”
In order to raise awareness about Pakcoin in Pakistan, 50 PAK are available for free to the first 150,000 Pakistanis who claim them. More cryptocurrency information and the latest news about Pakcoin can be found on their official website, www.pakcoin.io.
