Left to right: Miami Commissioners Manolo Reyes, Joe Carollo, Jeffrey Watson and Ken Russell stand with Mayor Francis Suarez (center podium) during a press conference calling for President Joe Biden to take stronger action against Cuba.
It took just 30 days for the MiamiCoin project to generate $ 4.3 million in donations to the city of Miami.
On Monday, city commissioners voted to accept the MiamiCoin-affiliated funds – which continue to grow – but won’t issue them for the time being.
MiamiCoin is a new cryptocurrency launched in August by crypto developer CityCoins Inc., hoping to spark interest in a city’s community projects.
But CityCoins doesn’t own MiamiCoin. Instead, like wet cryptocurrencies, MiamiCoin ownership is decentralized. Like Bitcoin, it is created through a technical process in which computers “mine” the coin by solving complex equations.
If a MiamiCoin is successfully mined, 30% of the “reward” for it will be deposited as a contribution into a virtual wallet intended for Miami. It is the access to this wallet that the commissioners approved on Monday.
The value of the MiamiCoins in the city’s wallet is determined by the value of another cryptocurrency called Stacks. A stack is currently worth $ 1.50 – and with more than three million stacks allocated to the City of Miami’s designated wallet, Miami now has access to around $ 4.5 million worth of funds, trend increasing. The city only accepts the funds as US dollars as part of its access agreement so as not to be in direct custody of a cryptocurrency.
Anyone can access MiamiCoins by mining them or buying them on an exchange, although currently only one, Okcoin.com, is selling them.
In an interview, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez welcomed the decision to accept the funds.
“The fact that CityCoins has chosen a MiamiCoin is an indication of how Miami is seen in the crypto community,” Suarez said in an interview. “The fact that 30% of mining revenues go to the city could bring significant benefits and has already generated about $ 4 million in 30 days.”
With great caution, said Suarez, the city will not spend the funds just yet.
“We will have discussions with the Commission as more money will be generated from the most effective means of using those funds,” said Suarez. “It’s a very, very new technology, we want to play it safe, we’ve done extensive due diligence, but we want to be very careful.”
Suarez noted that the city does not support MiamiCoin and that MiamiCoin cannot use the city’s logo. Still, Monday’s vote is part of a wider effort to continue to market the city as a hub for technology – and especially cryptocurrencies.
“The city has continued to establish itself as a leader in the public sector by accepting their contributions to the MiamiCoin protocol and demonstrating how local governments can deploy and use new technology for the benefit of their citizens,” CityCoins said in a statement on its website.
Some of the uses Miami commissioners originally proposed for the funds include programs to help curb climate change, fund new initiatives for disadvantaged communities, and crypto-education and incentives for tech entrepreneurs.
A $ 4 million infusion may seem like a drop in the ocean, but the lost revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic illustrates how millions can make a difference in difficult times. The city of Miami is currently considering a $ 1.3 billion spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins October 1.
Before administrators discovered last fall that they had the funds to fill most of a roughly $ 30 million budget gap, Miami approved a budget that forced layoffs from police and fire departments and cut some city services. The cuts were reversed after administrators discovered they had more in the city’s coffers than they originally thought.
This year, Miami’s budget will be topped up with an infusion of approximately $ 137.6 million in federal aid from the American Rescue Plan Act.
CityCoins said on its website that the MiamiCoin funds are only the most immediate use for MiamiCoins.
“One of the main advantages of MiamiCoin is the decentralized applications that can be built on this programmable token by and for the community,” it says. “There are currently over a hundred developers building applications that use the MiamiCoin open source protocol for the ongoing MiamiCoin Makers Month hackathon.
“As Miami is ready to make full use of its protocol contributions, city officials around the world have the opportunity to activate their own CityCoins and unlock new resources for the benefit of their city,” it said.
CityCoins creator Patrick Stanley said that just owning MiamiCoin creates value for the city of Miami as increased demand for them will result in more being created and more funds to be generated.
“The more the open protocol is built, the more the city of Miami earns as a function that benefits all citizens of Miami,” he said.
Rob Wile covers the fields of business, technology and economics in South Florida. He is a graduate of the Northwestern Medill School of Journalism and Columbia University. He grew up in Chicago.
source https://www.bisayanews.com/2021/09/14/miami-accepts-miamicoin-cryptocurrency-funds/
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