City of Miami to Pay Bitcoin Dividends to Locals

With inflation officially rearing its head in the economy, bitcoin adoption is on the rise. The city of Miami has been among the early movers thanks largely to the bitcoin friendly policies of Mayor Francis Suarez. Now city officials are taking it a step further.

Mayor Suarez is incentivizing Miami residents to jump on the bitcoin bandwagon. The city is offering to pay a bitcoin dividend to locals who create a digital wallet. Mayor Suarez announced the initiative on CoinDesk TV, saying,

“We’re going to be the first city in America to give a bitcoin yield as a dividend directly to its residents.”

Miami and DeFi

The city of Miami already launched its own cryptocurrency known as MiamiCoin. It is based on a a platform called Stacks, which is how they will deliver the bitcoin dividends to residents.

Basically what the city is doing is redirecting the bitcoin yield it generates from staking the MiamiCoin to city dwellers. So far, the city’s staking activity has generated more than $20 million, and MiamiCoin was just introduced in August. Staking is the process by which token holders pledge their assets for a period of time in exchange for generating yield.

Mayor Suarez discussed how the city will be working with cryptocurrency exchanges to help facilitate the wallet creation process for users. The city is working on a pilot program with a separate organization first seemingly to work out any kinks.

Dividend Mechanics

The dividend distributions will be powered by Stacks, which brings applications and smart contracts to the Bitcoin network. Stacks founder Muneeb made the announcement on Twitter.

 

BREAKING: City of Miami will give residents bitcoin wallets and pay them in BTC using their treasury yield.

Powered by Stacks, smart contracts for Bitcoin. @FrancisSuarez is a visionary leader who is on a roll these days!

— muneeb.btc (@muneeb) November 11, 2021

Muneeb explained that the dividends will be coming from Miami’s “treasury of Stacks that has a base yield of BTC.” He further explained that the Stacks represent the “gas to execute smart contracts for Bitcoin.”

Miami is still working on the logistics, including how it will define its universe of residents to determine who is eligible for the BTC. There could be a flood of takers now that the bitcoin price is trading above the $64,000 level.

It could also serve as a model for other U.S. cities to follow in Miami’s footsteps and generate bitcoin yield of their own.