Miami Mayor announces decision to pay city workers in Bitcoin
The approved proposal will now study the feasibility and risks of implementing Bitcoin as a mode of payment in the city
Francis Suarez, the Mayor of the metropolitan city of Miami has proposed an official resolution that will facilitate the use of Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap, as an acceptable mode of payment in various parts of the city administration. The development is a crucial indication towards the growing pace of mainstream cryptocurrency adoption in various sectors.
In a tweet earlier today, the Mayor announced that the city commission had supported the resolution and will now be taking further steps to implement the proposal.
“I wanna thank the city of Miami commissioners for supporting my resolution, which directs a city manager after analysis to procure a vendor to be able to offer our employees to get a percentage of their salary in Bitcoin; allows our residents to pay for fees in Bitcoin”, Suarez stated.
He added that “It’s wonderful to be a very crypto-forward city, and I want to thank my commission colleagues for allowing that to happen.” Miami is also expected to put a proposition in front of the state legislature which if successful would enable Bitcoin to be used as an acceptable investment for municipal funds.
The resolution which was approved through a 4-1 majority by the city council, is reported to have been significantly reworded from the original call. Yesterday’s Bloomberg report suggests that the commission has only agreed to study if payment of salaries and collection of fees in Bitcoin was feasible. No clause to take action towards executing such frameworks that were present in the original proposal was passed.
The lack of a close understanding of the risks of using Bitcoin was argued as the major cause of opposing the proposal. Some city commissioners refused to undertake the project without a comprehensive study of what vulnerabilities it could lead to.
“Maybe you’re ahead of your time, maybe you’re right, but let’s analyse it,” commissioner Manolo Reyes said. Ken Russell, vice-chairman of the city commission, reportedly stated that though he is “certainly not opposed” to the idea of Miami embracing Bitcoin, he would like to ensure that “we all know what we’re getting into”.
The Mayor, who is up for re-election this year has taken multiple steps to establish himself as an advocate for technologies like cryptocurrency. He had previously announced that he intends to ensure that Miami has “the most progressive crypto laws,” and overtake Silicon Valley as the most Bitcoin-friendly place in the US.
