Miami to Give ‘Bitcoin Yield’ From MiamiCoin to Its Citizens
The city’s mayor, Francis Suarez, announced the news on CoinDesk TV on Thursday.
Nov 11, 2021 at 3:32 p.m. UTC:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/K3E26S4WUZBLVPXGSLBCDWKDFU.jpg)
Miami Mayor Wants City to Be a 'Clean' Mining Hub for Crypto
The City of Miami will soon give out a “bitcoin yield” from the staking of its cryptocurrency to its citizens, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez announced on CoinDesk TV Thursday morning.
“We’re going to be the first city in America to give a bitcoin yield as a dividend directly to its residents,” Suarez said.
The yield comes from the staking of the city’s own cryptocurrency, MiamiCoin, which was introduced early this year and has already earned over $21 million in the past three months for Miami. Suarez noted that if you were to annualize that revenue, it would equal roughly one-fifth of Miami’s total annual tax revenue of $400 million.
The city will make the payments through a digital wallet and will work with a variety of cryptocurrency exchanges to allow its residents to acquire a wallet, register and get verified, the mayor said.
“[Mayor Suarez] just turned his city into an oil-producing country that gives bitcoin yield to its citizens. That’s incredible,” Community Lead for CityCoins Patrick Stanley told CoinDesk TV. CityCoins is the organization that set up and runs MiamiCoin.
In the long run, Suarez said the approach could potentially eliminate the need for Miami residents to pay taxes, which would be “revolutionary.”
“I do see very quickly a world where the satoshi system is what is used to make payments,” Mayor Suarez said. “We need for people to understand that … yes, we want you to hold bitcoin but we also want to increase the utility of bitcoin.”
DISCLOSURE
Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.
The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. As part of their compensation, certain CoinDesk employees, including editorial employees, may receive exposure to DCG equity in the form of stock appreciation rights, which vest over a multi-year period. CoinDesk journalists are not allowed to purchase stock outright in DCG.
:format(webp)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/coindesk/6d05e6ca-ca9b-44d0-97e6-b6bdceee3d6f.png)
Helene is a New York-based news reporter at CoinDesk covering U.S. crypto exchanges and Wall Street. She is a recent graduate of New York University's business and economic reporting program and has appeared on CBS News and Nasdaq TradeTalks where she talked about the market. She holds BTC and ETH.
Learn more about Consensus 2024, CoinDesk’s longest-running and most influential event that brings together all sides of crypto, blockchain and Web3. Head to consensus.coindesk.com to register and buy your pass now.