{"id":46573,"date":"2021-11-12T16:43:59","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T21:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/?p=46573"},"modified":"2021-11-15T15:31:52","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T20:31:52","slug":"miami-bitcoin-resident-payments-francis-suarez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/miami-bitcoin-resident-payments-francis-suarez\/","title":{"rendered":"Flush with cryptocurrency, Miami wants to give every resident some bitcoin"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City of Miami plans to pay out city residents using $21 million in cryptocurrency<\/a> that it’s been stashing away since August, Mayor Francis Suarez said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The plan, which will potentially require the creation of digital wallets for all of Miami\u2019s 442,000 residents, is the latest step in the city government\u2019s larger plans to embrace blockchain-based funding and digital service mechanisms.<\/p>\n

During an interview with CoinDesk<\/a>, Suarez announced plans to supply Miami residents \u2014 either those who vote, live or pay taxes in the city, though it\u2019s unclear exactly which \u2014 with a digital wallet and a yet-to-be-determined amount of bitcoin from the city\u2019s own dedicated digital wallet.<\/p>\n

The mayor said the city plans to partner with a variety of cryptocurrency exchanges to sort through the technical challenges of registering each resident with a digital wallet. Then the city will distribute the funds, he said, using a yet-to-be-created digital registration or verification system to mitigate the potential for fraud or for people moving to Miami just to receive bitcoin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure our residents, employees \u2014 we talked about this when we were going to pay our employees in bitcoin \u2014 understand why we are making such an emphasis on bitcoin,\u201d Suarez said during the interview.<\/p>\n

Suarez said he\u2019s currently working with Miami-Dade County Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins to align city and county efforts to enable residents to pay taxes in bitcoin, though it\u2019s unclear how the city would stabilize the volatile cryptocurrency to accept it. To pilot the bitcoin payment project, Suarez said he has promised \u201ca few hundred dollars in bitcoin” to members of a local youth advocacy organization, 5000 Role Models of Excellence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at all the different technologies and efficient ways to get it to people’s wallets,\u201d Suarez said.<\/p>\n

Miami is able to offer cryptocurrency because of a partnership with a nonprofit organization called CityCoins<\/a>, a group of cryptocurrency enthusiasts who, in early August, opened a digital wallet and a new digital currency \u2014 called MiamiCoin<\/a>, for the city to access, with no strings attached.<\/p>\n

Every time a MiamiCoin is mined, the city receives 30% of its value in the dedicated wallet, while the miner retains the remaining 70%. One MiamiCoin is worth roughly two one-hundredths of a cent, though miners have generated more than $21 million in revenue for the city since August. City commissioners in September voted to accept the wallet and its funds, with caveats that the city doesn\u2019t endorse CityCoins or MiamiCoin and does not technically hold any cryptocurrency; if Suarez were to extract funds from the wallet, the money would be in U.S. dollars.<\/p>\n

If the city were to use its entire $21 million wallet on the scheme, each of Miami’s 442,000 residents would only receive seven-ten-thousandths of a bitcoin, equivalent to about $47, as of Friday. (Suarez told CoinDesk that the small payments are meant to increase the “utility” of cryptocurrency throughout the city.)<\/p>\n

Suarez’s announcement Thursday is the latest public step he’s taken to promote Miami as a destination for those interested in developing blockchain-based or cryptocurrency-based technologies. Suarez and Miami Chief Information Officer Mike Sarasti<\/a> have both announced plans to convert portions of their paychecks into bitcoin. Sarasti told StateScoop he views his role as CIO, at least partially, in the context of a \u201cconcierge\u201d for the city\u2019s new industries. Suarez has also spent the last year courting bitcoin mining operations and exchanges to open offices in Miami.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said the city will partner with cryptocurrency exchanges to provide residents with digital wallets. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":46584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_grayscale_images":true,"grayscale_contrast":0,"sponsored_content":false,"display_author_bio":true,"story_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20649,20648,4676],"tags":[438,1383,1794,20972,21253,23170],"people":[],"special-report":[],"authors":[4698],"class_list":["post-46573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-emerging-tech","category-digital-services","category-city","tag-miami","tag-bitcoin","tag-cryptocurrency","tag-citycoins","tag-francis-suarez","tag-mike-sarasti","author-ryan-johnston"],"yoast_head":"\nFlush with cryptocurrency, Miami wants to give every resident some bitcoin | StateScoop<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said the city will partner with cryptocurrency exchanges to provide residents with digital wallets.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/miami-bitcoin-resident-payments-francis-suarez\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Flush with cryptocurrency, Miami wants to give every resident some bitcoin | StateScoop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said the city will partner with cryptocurrency exchanges to provide residents with digital wallets.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/miami-bitcoin-resident-payments-francis-suarez\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"StateScoop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StateScoop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-12T21:43:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-15T20:31:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-1321781372.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1460\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ryan Johnston\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@RCJ__96\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@State_Scoop\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/miami-bitcoin-resident-payments-francis-suarez\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/miami-bitcoin-resident-payments-francis-suarez\/\",\"name\":\"Flush with cryptocurrency, Miami wants to give every resident some bitcoin | StateScoop\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/miami-bitcoin-resident-payments-francis-suarez\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/miami-bitcoin-resident-payments-francis-suarez\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-1321781372.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-12T21:43:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-15T20:31:52+00:00\",\"description\":\"Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said the city will partner with cryptocurrency exchanges to provide residents with digital wallets.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/miami-bitcoin-resident-payments-francis-suarez\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/miami-bitcoin-resident-payments-francis-suarez\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-1321781372.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-1321781372.jpg\",\"width\":2000,\"height\":1460,\"caption\":\"People enjoy themselves at the Bitcoin 2021 Convention, a cryptocurrency conference held at the Mana Convention Center in Wynwood on June 04, 2021 in Miami. 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