In the U.S., someone has decided to reward residents with bitcoin. In fact, Jayson Stewart, the Mayor of Cool Valley in the state of Missouri in the United States, said that he plans to give each resident of his town up to $1,000 in Bitcoin.
The Mayor plans to give each of Cool Valley’s 1,500 residents Bitcoins through a maturation program, meaning they won’t be able to sell for several years.
Cool Valley is a small U.S. town in St. Louis County, Missouri, with a population of about 1,500. The Mayor of the city has an ambitious plan to enrich the residents of his town and plans to do so by awarding everyone with an amount of Bitcoin.
Stewart presented his plan a few days ago during an interview with KSDK, an NBC affiliated television station. Funds are being raised to put this plan into action, just to put bitcoins in the hands of every resident of the city.
“It’s like digital gold. I’d love to see every single family in my town receive some level of bitcoin, whether it’s $500 or $1,000. I have friends whose lives have been completely changed, like going from a regular nine-to-five job to being worth over $80 million in just a few years.”
This was said in the interview by Mayor Stewart, who describes himself as a successful entrepreneur who believes a lot in the digital world, especially in cryptocurrencies.Â
Stewart, to this end, said that he would like to see every household in his city receive a certain level of BTC between $500 and $1,000. Stewart also told KSDK that he had several supportive donors who had agreed to cover the money he could raise for the program up to a few tens of millions of dollars.
A pro-Bitcoin mayor
The Mayor said he was trying to pay for the program with government funds and could potentially rely on aid money through the COVID-19 relief program. He also opened the door to using city taxpayers to pay the bill, saying it was a “possible” option.
Stewart said the free Bitcoins would be locked in for a time to prevent speculation, with the idea that recipients of the funds would not be able to demobilize the capital for at least five years or more.
Addressing the environmental concerns that some people associate with bitcoin, inherent in its considerable energy consumption, Mayor Stewart said his city would take proactive measures to offset the known ecological impact of cryptocurrency.Â
“We’re giving away bitcoin, and at the same time, we’re converting our entire city to solar, like all the government lights and things like that,” he explained.
The Mayor also talked about some of the plans to familiarize residents with cryptocurrency, including offering free classes on safely using and storing bitcoin. Stewart hopes to kick off this program by the end of the year.
