Suarez says Miami residents will be getting Bitcoin ‘yield’ in digital wallets
Miami residents may soon be getting a Bitcoin “yield” thanks to the MiamiCoin project.
In an interview with cryptocurrency news site Coindesk.com Thursday, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said he was planning to convert the millions of dollars in proceeds MiamiCoin has created into a Bitcoin “dividend.”
“We’re going to be the first city in America to give a Bitcoin yield as a dividend directly to its residents,” Suarez said. “We’re going to create digital wallets for our residents, and we’re going to give them Bitcoin directly from the yield of MiamiCoin.”
The wallets would be set up with a third-party vendor, he said.
Suarez himself laid out key questions that would need to be answered before the city government could dole out cryptocurrency as dividends.
“Is it going to be taxpayers? Is it going to be those that vote in the city?” Suarez said during the CoinDesk interview. “Is it going to be people that have a city address?”
In a follow-up statement, Suarez said the yield would come from setting aside funds the city has already earned — though not yet spent — through the virtual “mining” process MiamiCoin supporters have undertaken. Through that mining, the city has earned more than $21 million.
MiamiCoin is denominated in another cryptocurrency called Stacks (STX). When Stacks are temporarily “locked up” — or stacked, there is a 10% dividend Bitcoin “reward” for securing the Stacks network. That is what Suarez is referring to.
Suarez said he would stack a portion of the city’s MiamiCoin proceeds; if the city stacked approximately half the current amount, the 10% yield would result in approximately $1 million in Bitcoin — for now, about $2 worth of Bitcoin per resident — but, potentially, a few thousand dollars in a decade.
The statement said the Bitcoin “could be distributed in an orderly and diligenced process.”
Suarez, fresh off a reelection campaign that saw him coast to a second term with millions of dollars in donations from tech investors and cryptocurrency enthusiasts, appeared to relish the fact that he is now engaged in a “crypto rivalry” with New York City’s Mayor-Elect Eric Adams.
“Mayor-elect Adams is still too timid to talk about crypto on our show, but I appreciate your coming on and having an intelligent discussion on it,” CoinDesk Spotlight host Christine Lee told Suarez.
“I think he’ll be following soon,” Suarez said, smiling wide. “I think he’ll be following on some other stuff soon.”
Promotion of tech and cryptocurrency in Miami has boosted Suarez’s national profile for nearly a year. By focusing on crypto, a topic that likely has an audience that stretches well past Miami city limits, he’s cultivated a national audience in some financial media and on Twitter. That’s even as scandal has roiled City Hall and led to the controversial ouster of the city’s former police chief.
On Thursday, it was unclear if city administrators who would oversee the distribution of cryptocurrency to Miamians knew about Suarez’s proclamation. Questions for City Manager Art Noriega’s staff were redirected to the mayor’s office.
Previous public conversations about the city government’s relationship with cryptocurrency would suggest many wrinkles would need to be ironed out. Commissioners who agreed to accept funds linked to the MiamiCoin emphasized they felt comfortable with accepting U.S. dollars as a “gift” derived from proceeds from the mining of MiamiCoin. City staffers pointed out that the city would not be holding any cryptocurrency as part of that arrangement.
Suarez has also promoted the idea of allowing city staffers — including himself — to be paid in Bitcoin, a concept that has raised concerns internally, according to a Vice News report. Public records showed worries over the risks and liabilities associated with tying a public employee’s compensation to a cryptocurrency that has fluctuating value.
This story was originally published November 11, 2021 at 4:33 PM.
