Tanahub.com — Suriname has a female presidential candidate with an ambitious vision to build a Bitcoin-based nation: Maya Parbhoe.
The CEO of Daedalus Labs, a Bitcoin and NOSTR-based service company, claims she has a grand plan to implement Bitcoin standards in her country, including fighting corruption, provided she wins the 2025 election.
Parbhoe prioritizes Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender. In the first year of her administration, she plans to gradually replace the Surinamese dollar with satoshis (the smallest Bitcoin unit) and ensure all government employees are paid in BTC.
Parbhoe has been known as a pro-crypto figure for the past decade. Speaking to Cointelegraph, she mentioned that her interest in technology was inherited from her father.
In 2014, she joined the Whale Pool Telegram group and attended several crypto conferences.
“After that, I fully immersed myself in the crypto world and decided to dedicate the rest of my life to it. If there’s one cause I can truly fight for until the end, it’s Bitcoin,” Parbhoe declared.
She began studying how global financial markets operate and was shocked to discover the fragility of Suriname’s financial infrastructure.
According to her, the Central Bank of Suriname and commercial banks in the country rely solely on Excel spreadsheets to determine exchange rates. Suriname’s economic growth has also been stifled by the absence of a capital market.
Parbhoe sees an opportunity to build financial infrastructure from scratch, avoiding the same mistakes made with fiat systems.
Plan to Combat Corruption with Bitcoin
Parbhoe also views Bitcoin as a promising tool to tackle Suriname’s rampant corruption. Her motivation to fight corruption stems from a tragedy when her father, Winod Parbhoe, was murdered in a shooting incident when she was 13 years old.
The tragedy occurred after her father revealed to various parties, including the CIA, that millions of U.S. dollars had been funneled into accounts at BNY Mellon through De Surinaamsche Bank (DSB), the largest bank in Suriname. The funds were allegedly used to finance Colombian guerrilla group FARC.
The rapidly growing casino industry in Suriname has also been suspected of being linked to money laundering activities by South American drug cartels.
The deaths of Parbhoe’s father and his lawyer, Eddy Bruma—killed a year earlier—remain two of the largest unsolved cases connected to corruption in Suriname.
Parbhoe stated that Suriname’s judicial system has failed to prosecute those involved in corruption, with courts allegedly bribed to issue favorable verdicts.
She claims her anti-corruption plan using Bitcoin is inspired by the success of President Nayib Bukele, who transformed El Salvador from a country with one of the highest murder rates into one free of major crimes.
She believes that by harnessing Bitcoin’s power, Suriname can achieve government budget transparency and help expose systemic corruption within the country.
To Parbhoe, Bitcoin is not just a financial tool but a means to create a transparent and accountable governance system that could pave the way for financial revitalization in Suriname.
Parbhoe has worked with Surinamese politicians over the past six years through various local business ventures. However, she had never considered entering politics until Samson Mow encouraged her to run for president.
Mow is the CEO of Bitcoin accelerator Jan3, which played a significant role in Bitcoin’s transformation in El Salvador.
Parbhoe’s vision for a corruption-free, Bitcoin-based Suriname has gained significant support from the Bitcoin community. Although a long journey lies ahead, the momentum Parbhoe has built offers hope for the country’s future.