In latest months, civic officers in New York Metropolis and Miami have every endorsed new plans to generate cash for his or her cities’ coffers utilizing cryptocurrency. After these preliminary forays into municipal finance, would possibly the digital forex motion come to Philadelphia subsequent?
Some native leaders, it appears, definitely hope so. Final week, metropolis officers acknowledged that they were in “very early internal discussions” about the opportunity of utilizing donations from Philadelphia-branded cryptocurrency as a strategy to increase cash.
Whereas economists like Federal Reserve Board member Neel Kashkari have described crypto as “95% fraud, hype, noise, and confusion,” supporters of the digital forex see it as a new and exciting way to construct wealth. Philadelphia’s chief data officer Mark Wheeler seems to be one in every of them. Reporting from Billy Penn showcasing immediate messaging posts from a consumer named “Markaroo” (a nickname Wheeler additionally makes use of on his Twitter account) who identifies themselves because the CIO of Philadelphia could also be an illustration of simply how elated some metropolis leaders are about this plan.
They shouldn’t be.
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Regardless of the passion of its early adopters, cryptocurrency remains to be a dangerous expertise with a raft of potential harms. The difficult strategy of “mining” for the forex utilizing computer systems is itself a massive source of energy consumption, and particular person cryptocurrency transactions use extra energy than the average American household in a month.
It is usually price questioning the selection to accomplice with CityCoins. Whereas Miami Mayor Francis Suarez lauded the initial $5.25 million the town has gained from its “Miami Coin,” the town has been compelled to reevaluate this system because the coins have lost nearly 93% of their value. That sort of volatility isn’t unusual — Bitcoin cryptocurrency has lost roughly a third of its value over the past 12 months — and will give us all pause about creating any new “PhillyCoins.”
Most significantly, the town has critical expertise issues that Wheeler’s workplace ought to be tackling. OnePhilly, the town’s human assets system, has been plagued by issues, together with failed payroll deductions. When the town’s Workplace of Innovation and Expertise took over the Metropolis Commissioners’ Philadelphiavotes.com web site, it eliminated the Ballot Box App, an necessary method for members of the general public to rapidly and simply search for previous election outcomes. This function stays offline. Aspiring entrepreneurs face a confusing maze of forms and websites as a result of the town has but to create an easy-to-use, one-stop store for them. Town’s expertise division has loads on its plate already with out taking up managing a cryptocurrency.
» READ MORE: Money for nothing: Cities’ crypto push draws fans, critics
Innovation and new applied sciences generally is a massive alternative for municipalities, and it isn’t shocking {that a} cash-strapped metropolis like ours would discover methods to gather further income with out having to impose extra taxes on the residents of the poorest massive metropolis within the nation. Nonetheless, on the subject of cryptocurrency, Mayor Jim Kenney ought to be aware of his administration’s final high-profile enterprise into the tech world — the national embarrassment that was Philly Fighting COVID. Do we actually need a repeat of that debacle?
Philadelphia has sufficient issues — cryptocurrency doesn’t need to turn out to be one other one.
