According to KSDK News, Mayor Jayson Stewart has begun to raise cash in order to provide a crash education in cryptocurrency to the town’s 1500 or so people, who will each receive $1,000 in BTC.
Residents of a small Missouri town may become the first in the US to distribute Bitcoin to their neighbours. If Cool Valley Mayor Jayson Stewart gets his way, that fantasy may become a reality.
Stewart believes that holding digital currency will have a significant impact on the town in the coming years. “I have friends whose lives have been dramatically transformed, such as going from a conventional nine-to-five job to being worth over 80 million dollars in a matter of years,” adds the Mayor.
He goes on to say that the majority of the funds for the initiative will come from anonymous Bitcoin investors. “I have a number of generous contributors who have pledged to match any funds I raise up to several million dollars,” Stewart says.
In addition to private investments, he says the municipality is working to gain government money for the project. “Some of the relief money that comes in from the COVID-19 relief,” he argues, might also be used for the project. It’s also possible that the city will contribute to the experiment’s funding.
Stewart considers Bitcoin to be “digital gold,” and says he’d like to see “every single household in my community receive some degree of Bitcoin, whether it’s $500 or $1,000.”
If something appears to be too good to be true, it most likely is. And, while the arrangement Stewart has proposed is a solid one, it comes with a hefty price tag. Participants in the initiative will be unable to sell the digital currency for “a few years.”
“We’re putting something in place similar to a Bitcoin vesting timetable. The concept is that you might not touch it for five years before you get full access to it.”
Stewart’s main concern, according to the mayor’s office, is that someone will sell their currency right away to pay off a car or meet some other short-term financial necessity.
“And then they’re going to really regret it when Bitcoin is like $500,000 all these years later,” the Mayor claims.
According to Stewart, the city would also provide free seminars to people on how to safely utilize and handle cryptocurrencies.
