According to a recent report from RealVision, Miami’s mayor Francis Suarez is keen on investing part of his 401k in Bitcoin. He was present at the blockchain-centric conference which was held in Las Vegas from December 9-11. He spoke to ReaVision’s Samuel Burke and said that he would like to contribute bitcoin to his retirement plan.
A 401k is a long-term retirement saving investment plan in the USA. A company called ForUsAll is pioneering Alt401 (k), allowing 5% of a retirement-saving portfolio to be invested in Bitcoin. The Alt401(k) offers investors exposure to 40 cryptocurrency. Digital assets are attractive addition to retirement savings, as they do not follow the movements of stocks and bonds.
Due to lower corporate taxes, mayor Suarez has sought to attract tech firms to Miami, and bitcoin has formed a significant part of his campaign to make Miami the next Silicon Valley. He revealed that his intention is to pay out annual bitcoin yealds to citizens of Miami from an open source crypto initiative called MiamiCoin. The citizens were allowed to mine the base cryptocurrency called Stacks, have them converted to MiamiCoin by CityCoin and retain 70% of the minted coins.
Suarez himself receives his paycheque in Bitcoin via the Strike App, although he does conveniently receive income through his legal practice and membership in a private equity firm.
He has consulted with the Miami-Dade County commissioner to find the best way how to allow taxes to be paid with bitcoin.
However, mayor Suarez faced several difficulties when he sought to invest city funds in cryptocurrency. The state statutes do not permit state funds to be invested in volatile assets like bitcoin.
On December 6-7, he hosted a cryptocurrency exchange industry day and has put forward a request for proposals on how to manage the city payments. He also expressed a desire to pay government workers in bitcoin and allow municipal levies to be paid in bitcoin.
