The city of Miami will soon give out a “bitcoin yield” to its citizens from the staking of its cryptocurrency, 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 payment will be done through a digital wallet for which the city will work with a variety of cryptocurrency exchanges to allow its residents to acquire a digital 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.”
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