By Alicia Maher
After being voted as New York City’s 110th mayor previously this week, Dem Eric Adams recently stated that he will receive his initial three salaries in Bitcoin as part of a pilot program. On the 4th of November, Eric Adams stated that in NYC they like to do things big and that when he becomes mayor, he is going to receive his initial THREE wages in Bitcoin as payment. He went on to say that New York City will be the epicenter of the Bitcoin sector, as well as other rapidly expanding and innovative industries. And that everyone should just watch and see.
In a discussion with Bloomberg published just after the victory, Adams pledged to make “the Big Apple” a crypto-adopted city, following in the footsteps of Miami, which had already done so. He stated that Miami’s mayor, Francis Suarez, has MiamiCoin that is doing well, and that his administration in New York is now looking into how they can do something similar and put it into action.
He stated that he will work to remove roadblocks that are impeding the expansion of Bitcoin and the overall virtual currency sector, saying that they are too administrative, too costly, and far too tough to do business. New York state is well-known for its harsh BitLicense rules, which make it incredibly difficult for cryptocurrency firms to lawfully thrive in the world’s finance center.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who was re-elected with a landslide victory on Tuesday, said in a Twitter post this week that he will take his next salary solely in Bitcoin, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin In Miami
Last month, in an interview, Suarez stated that paying city employees in Bitcoin was a “big priority” for him because he strives to differentiate his city as “the cryptocurrency central destination of the United States or the planet.” Suarez’s decision to get paid in Bitcoin follows this initial plan. Moreover, the mayor suggested that the city should indeed be entitled to include Bitcoin in its financial accounts, despite the fact that this is currently not permissible in the state of Florida. According to Suarez, if they had been able to hold it from when he first put the petition on the calendar, it would have been up by 30 or 40%, and he would have looked like a complete genius.
Earlier last month, the Miami City Commission directed the superintendent to conduct research into the feasibility of allowing city employees to choose whether to receive all or a portion of their salaries in Bitcoin, as well as the feasibility of allowing businesses and residents to pay for expenses and products in Bitcoin. According to Business Insider, the panel opted to accept contributions via MiamiCoin, crypto that the city launched in August in conjunction with CityCoins, Inc., a non-profit that facilitates the creation of cryptocurrencies by local governments.