Colorado will begin taking cryptocurrency for tax and other payments by the end of the summer, Gov. Jared Polis told CoinDesk.
“For consumer convenience, we want to accept payment in a wide variety of cryptocurrencies, just as we do in credit cards,” Polis said Wednesday (Feb. 16).
He added that Colorado is seeking companies that will handle the crypto transactions. Polis said the state doesn’t want to take the “speculative risk” of holding digital assets, so there will be a transactional layer.
Polis has long been a proponent of cryptocurrency. As a congressman in 2014, he was one of the first U.S. politicians to accept campaign donations in bitcoin.
Colorado wouldn’t be the first state to undertake such a move. Pilot programs in Ohio and Seminole County, Florida, have been unsuccessful, however.
Miami, Florida, is a city in the U.S. that has taken large strides toward crypto acceptance, with its MiamiCoin raking in around $8 million as of late 2021.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has ambitions to make the city a hub for crypto innovation.
In his opinion, crypto could change the way local programs are funded. And Miami could generate exponentially more money, as much as $60 million in the next year.
MiamiCoin was rolled out last August and is powered by CityCoins, a blockchain project letting people invest in cities by buying or mining tokens. That can then earn them yields in bitcoin or Stacks tokens.
PYMNTS also reported last year that Miami had been planning to give bitcoin out to citizens, as a part of Suarez’s plan.
See also: Bitcoin Daily: Landry’s to Debut Bitcoin Rewards; City of Miami Plans to Send Bitcoin to Citizens
Suarez has long been a supporter of crypto as well, and he said he will be taking his salary in bitcoin.
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