A Miami-Dade County commissioner is exploring the feasibility of residents paying their taxes and fees in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Danielle Cohen Higgins, District 8 County’s commissioner and representative on the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners, is putting forth a resolution for establishing a cryptocurrency task force that would assess the feasibility of allowing residents to pay for county taxes, fees and services with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
The goal, Cohen Higgins told Miami News Times, is to get Miami-Dade County a step ahead of the other counties in the U.S.
The proposal comes amid a growing trend in Miami of attempting to bring Bitcoin integration to the city’s services. Mayor Francis Suarez has been vocal about exploring how Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can help propel Miami forward in the technological development landscape.
Cohen Higgins told Miami News Times that “she has been inspired by Suarez’s embrace of tech innovation and wants to support his efforts at the county level by exploring cryptocurrency’s use for municipal government.”
Mayor Suarez’s resolution to explore using bitcoin for the compensation of city employees and allowing residents to pay city fees and property taxes in bitcoin got approved in February.
With residents and investors of different backgrounds and nationalities, the city of Miami would benefit from one aspect of bitcoin which other cities may disregard: government neutrality. Bitcoin would allow foreign investors to make payments without the losses typically incurred by exchange rates and fees. This can save both the city and the taxpayer time, effort and money.
Apart from the governmental contributions, 2021 will be a great year for Miami and its Bitcoin community, as the largest Bitcoin event of all time got relocated to the city. Moreover, this sort of Bitcoin development and discussion also benefits the network, as it pushes bitcoin to become a more widely-accepted, trustless medium of exchange. Having counties and governments explore this aspect of Bitcoin may aid its adoption across other areas of society as well.
