By Nathan Ferguson
Mayor Francis Suarez has surprised the citizens of Miami with a distribution of $21M worth of locally mined crypto.
According to reports, the citizens of Miami are in for a treat, as Mayor Francis Suarez has announced a huge sum of $21M in crypto assets, present in a city crypto wallet, to be distributed among the people.
MiamiCoin
The $21M in crypto assets had started gathering up since the month of August because of a nonprofit organization named, CityCoins, which is apparently operating a unique digital wallet, as well as a new currency by the name of MiamiCoin, that is available for citizens of Miami to play around with. The main feature that this new currency had was that people were given the ability to mint new tokens by utilizing their own computer systems at home, from which they could earn a significant percentage of those minted tokens. The city would have 30%, while the minters would receive 70% of the total, thus generating more than $21M, which is now being cashed out by the citizens, with every individual receiving roughly about $47 worth of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Payments a Priority
As for a reason behind such a move, Mayor Francis stated in an interview with Bloomberg that the ability for government employees to be paid in Bitcoin is quite an important matter in the priority queue. Mayor Frances also stated that handling digital wallets can be quite a hassle, so that issue can be addressed by introducing cryptocurrency exchanges in the city. Following that, proper verification systems must also be integrated in order to protect the citizens from dangerous and fraudulent activities. The main intention behind this is to help the citizens learn about how Bitcoin and other cryptos work, as government salaries are planned to be distributed in Bitcoin rather than traditional currency.
Francis moving Forward with Crypto
Mayor Francis has also been meeting up with various cryptocurrency mining firms in order to introduce mining operations in the region of South Florida. He has also been working to help the citizens of Miami pay their government taxes in Bitcoin, giving rise to a much more flexible payment system that supports all kinds of digital and traditional assets. As of now, local governments are still not allowed to invest in such sensitive assets as Bitcoin, so for the city to invest in crypto assets is still a thought.