The city of Miami is seeking to embrace bitcoin in its operations, a move that could attract technology companies, Mayor Francis Suarez said on Friday.
“Cities like Miami, we’re trying to attract tech town,” Suarez said in a telephone interview. “It’s part of a larger play if you will to position Miami as one of the most tech-forward cities in the country.”
The city commission late on Thursday approved in a 4-1 vote a first step in the mayor’s proposal to allow bitcoin to be used to pay city workers and for city residents and businesses to make fee and tax payments with the cryptocurrency.
“I firmly believe that when and if Amazon and or Apple adopts bitcoin as a payment structure the dam will essentially break because at that point you’re talking about a very high volume of transactions being able to use bitcoin,” Suarez said. “I just wanted us to be on the cutting edge and sort of ahead of the game.”
Other US local or state government have dipped their toes into cryptocurrency, including Florida’s Seminole County, according to media reports. In 2018, the Ohio Treasurer’s Office launched a cryptocurrency tax payment portal, which was suspended in 2019 over a legal issue.