CityCoins, the cryptocurrency group behind digital currencies devoted to Miami and New York Metropolis, could goal Austin, Texas, for its subsequent city-based cryptocurrency, however officers there advised StateScoop they have been unfamiliar with the platform.
On the web site for CityCoins, a nonprofit group of builders and cryptocurrency advocates, customers in October voted to create a brand new digital forex known as AustinCoin that, if activated and mined, would start funneling the cryptocurrency right into a digital pockets that’s solely accessible by the Metropolis of Austin. The brand new coin, known as ATXCoin for brief, would divert 30% of each coin that’s mined right into a digital pockets put aside for the town authorities.
However Austin Chief Info Officer Chris Stewart stated the town should do extra analysis earlier than it commits to spending any ATXCoin.
“That is the primary I’ve heard of this platform, however I’m to see the way it evolves right here in Austin,” Stewart wrote.
Miami metropolis commissioners voted in September to permit the town to withdraw funds from the digital pockets, which has reached $27 million. New York Metropolis, in the meantime, has not formally acknowledged its digital pockets, which now comprises $28 million.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler told Fox News final month that adopting an Austin cryptocurrency “is actually one thing to contemplate,” noting the town’s eagerness to assist develop new applied sciences.
The Texas state authorities has spent a lot of this yr courting cryptocurrency mining corporations and entrepreneurs, telling state banks in June that they’re allowed to safeguard their clients’ cryptocurrency property. Financial institution clients who maintain bitcoin or one other cryptocurrency can ask Texas banks that supply the service to both retailer a duplicate of their non-public key or switch their digital forex to the financial institution for holding.
With low-cost power and a Bitcoin-friendly administration below Gov. Greg Abbott, giant worldwide bitcoin mining corporations have additionally set up shop in Texas over the previous yr, together with a number of in Austin. The professional-cryptocurrency atmosphere across the metropolis and state may entice CityCoins miners to maneuver ahead with the AustinCoin, CityCoins co-founder Patrick Stanley advised StateScoop.
“AustinCoin is just not activated but,” Stanley wrote in an e-mail. “The neighborhood could determine to in the event that they really feel the mayor is really a technological progressive, like [New York City Mayor-elect] Eric Adams and [Miami Mayor] Francis Suarez have been. There’s additionally a little bit of a 1st mover benefit to technologically progressive mayors as they’ll do extra good for his or her metropolis, sooner by being responsive.”
Stanley told StateScoop in September that cities that may undertaking a picture of being technologically savvy improve the probability that individuals are going to mine the coin of that metropolis, driving up its worth and elevating the worth of that metropolis’s digital pockets. Suarez in Miami and Adams in New York have each been outspoken about their perception in cryptocurrencies, even providing to immediately convert parts of their paychecks to bitcoin.
