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Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with Free IrishCoin

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P. H. Madore
Last Updated

IrishCoin is not a typical cryptocurrency. Its purpose is not to replace the Euro or to replace fiat in general. It is not a competitor to Bitcoin. Rather, it is meant to support Irish tourism by providing travelers with discounts on things like drinks and accommodations.

Irishcoin logoIrish tourism is a three-billion Euro per year industry, and businesses are always looking for a way to stand out among the many choices that travelers have when they land. “Businesses first gain customers through IRL branding,” says Dave Lattimer, a radio personality for liveIreland radio and a member of the IrishCoin team.

The first business to use the IrishCoin  token as a discount vehicle was D’arcy McGee’s  on St. Patrick’s Day 2014. The coin has experienced a five-fold BTC devaluation in the meantime, but again, the speculation value of IrishCoin is not its actual value. The businesses accepting it for discount aren’t necessarily doing so in order to profit greatly on the Bitcoin market. Nor are the folks holding it necessarily using it for the purpose of financial gain. Rather, the coin serves as a way to get discount goods and services while on vacation in Ireland – or potentially in the future to get such discounts at Irish pubs worldwide. “Irish is a big selling point world wide. It’s a brand itself,” said Lattimer in an exclusive interview with CCN.com.

During the launch, at McGee’s, people who had IrishCoin could get a 50% discount on each pint of Irish Black Stout for the price of 250 IRL. The business has continued to run specials on particular types of beer since then. Likewise, a chain of bed and breakfasts called Almara is going to be accepting IRL in lieu of more traditional discount tokens. The overall selling point for the businesses is that IrishCoins are easily veritable discount tokens which also garner business they might not otherwise get. Being an Irish coin billionaire won’t necessarily get you the red carpet treatment in Dublin or other parts of Ireland, but it will save you some money to spend on other parts of your trip when you decide to go.

1 Million IRL Giveaway on St. Patrick’s Day

To celebrate the launch of the Android wallet as well as increase use and adoption otherwise, liveIreland Radio will be running a promotion on St. Patrick’s Day March 17th  in which they will be giving away at least one million IrishCoins. The “Pot O’Gold IRL giveway,” as Harnett referred to it, will be running from 12 noon GMT to 11PM in the same time zone.

For folks in the states, that means 7AM to 6PM CST. And remember: the whole point of the token is to stimulate tourism, unlike other coins with national names to them – such as IsraCoin and AuroraCoin, which made a point of promoting inwardly instead of internationally. So don’t be shy about getting your wallet installed and tuning in and possibly claiming the coins, which “will be given away in large and small blocks.”

Alternatively, you can mine the Scrypt coin in one of the three IrishCoin mining pools. It’s been mined for well over a year, so difficulty is relatively high and rewards are relatively low, but nevertheless, Harnett assures us that the team “is in this for the long haul.” The applications of the tourism discount token are basically endless – shopping, airfare, all of it could eventually be discountable by IrishCoin.