When you think of regions with large and passionate cryptocurrency communities, I’m sure a few could come to mind, but what doesn’t necessarily come to mind is Kurdistan. Kurdistan is a highly contested region located in the middle east, encompassing parts of Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran. Not many people know of it and it’s people but Kurdistan is one of the countries where crypto can really make a difference.

In 2014, 85% of KRG(Kurdistan Regional Government) banks collapsed, millions of people left with no money, no salaries, with the banks just closing their doors. People lost their life savings, their businesses and some people were even driven to suicide. So its fair to say the Kurdish people do not have much trust in banks or central authorities for that matter and as such have looked to crypto as a means to independence and economic sovereignty.

For a while now, MATRIX has had a special community member, now also a MATRIX team member who has been pushing MATRIX within his region of Kurdistan. Bnar Fazil(Ben), has been one of the most active and passionate MATRIX community members. There is a large crypto community in kurdistan and as such Ben has made it his mission to get the MATRIX name out there as best he can, and that is not only through the internet but by locally pushing the adoption of the MATRIX token.

Bnar has been playing his part in spreading and promoting cryptocurrencies, as a user himself and by encouraging and opening up other avenues that allow others to make use of their crypto tokens within their day to day lives.

Some of the initiatives Ben has undertaken include:

Paradise Crypto Cafe

Paradise cafe looks like your typical cafe from the outside, good food, drinks and live music, but it has few more things that make it just a bit more special.

Not only does it serve as a cafe, but Paradise coffee serves as a “blockchain school” where you can learn about cryptocurrencies, an OTC trading desk where you can buy and sell bitcoin for cash, as well as the first cafe where you can use the MATRIX AI NETWORK(MAN) token to pay for your meals.

PAYING FOR A MEAL WITH THE MAN TOKEN

X-Sports Clothing Store

X-Sports is a clothing store located in Sulaymaniyah, in Iraqi Kurdistan. Here customers can get special discounts for shopping with $man.

Promoting $man through muai thai fighter Shahez Fazil

Shahez is a champion fighter with a few European and Thai championships under his belt, Shahez also happens to be Bnar’s brother. As a means to promote MATRIX further, Bnar has even put MATRIX’s logo on Shahez and his teams work out gear.

SHAHEZ FAZIL BEFORE A FIGHT

This sort of initiative definitely deserves to be applauded, community is one of the most important things within crypto and it is quite amazing to see the lengths investors and community members go to for projects they are involved in. It should be noted that Bnar was offered to be paid as the Kurdisatan community manager but he refused, instead continuing to spread the word of $man out of pure passion and love for the project.

Initiatives like these are how you can begin a widespread community led adoption of cryptocurrency. It is quite exciting to see how the MATRIX community will explore the various use cases for the $man token. Even though MATRIX was never designed as a payment crypto currency, value can still be derived from using it as a payment mechanism. By giving investors increased freedom as to how they choose to spend their MATRIX tokens.

But we should not only applaud the promotional strides Bnar has taken but the push he is making to educate and help his fellow Kurds learn about and invest in cryptocurrency. It is grass roots initiatives like these that can bring upon change in a much larger scale.

We salute you Bnar!!