Miami Florida, is America’s best known city for its beaches, action, fun, and it’s moving into the 21st century of payments for city employees. Miami’s mayor, Mayor Francis Suarez, is considering giving city employees the opportunity to get their salaries paid in Bitcoin. He stated recently that Bitcoin is going to be the “biggest story of the next few years.”
The Mayor admits he’s always been fascinated with the idea of bitcoin and its growing popularity with the American public. The city has proposed a newly creative direction for Bitcoin to become available to city employees:
First, the city is considering giving city employees the opportunity to get their salaries paid in bitcoin. Also local fees and taxes could be paid in bitcoin or some other cryptocurrency. Finally, the city’s treasury might place some of its investment capital into bitcoin.
Miami would be a first for major cities in the United States to do something like this, and maybe the first city in the world. While in exact percentage or absolute terms, the mayor hasn’t got an exact figure for how much investment he wants to place. But he knows he wants to structure it in a “public-private partnership” where private partners can take some of the reward for defraying risk from the public side.
Another idea being floated is that the city would invest about $250,000 in public funds into a fund that would be supplemented with $750,000 in private bitcoin from three large investors.
These private investors would be compensated by being allowed to withdraw their funds first , guaranteeing their return, while the city would benefit from anything left.
