Skip to main content

Rio de Janeiro wants to convert parts of the city's assets into cryptocurrencies

 


Brazil's second largest city, Rio de Janeiro, is planning to convert part of the city's revenue into cryptocurrencies. Mayor Eduardo Paes wants to make his city a magnet for cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. Will Rio de Janeiro become the second Miami - or can we already talk about the second El Salvador?


It only took a few days for one of the optimistic forecasts for this year to come true: other public institutions will follow the example of El Salvador and Miami. The public sector is becoming more and more a bitcoin hodler.


Last week, during Rio Innovation Week, Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes announced that his city plans to invest 1 percent of city assets in cryptocurrencies. This probably means Bitcoin, but maybe other coins as well.


This investment plan is part of "Crypto Rio" - an initiative with which Paes wants to make Rio de Janeiro the Latin American crypto center. As part of this initiative, it should also be possible to pay taxes to the city in Bitcoin and receive a 10 percent discount in return. The city's two financial officers, Pedro Paulo and Chicão Bulhões, explained that the legal framework for this is currently being examined.


Paes is inspired by his US colleague Francis Suarez, the Bitcoin-enthusiastic mayor of Florida's metropolis Miami . Suarez discussed how to transform a metropolis into a technology hub with Paes via video link. In Miami, Suarez has used shrewd tax incentives and real or token bitcoin-friendly measures to attract several Silicon Valley companies to Miami. "We created a tsunami of possibilities," said Suarez, "We understood that we can be at the forefront of innovation and we invited developers here."


Of course, for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, this news is big. Rio de Janeiro is not just any small town, but the second largest city in Brazil. Around 6.7 million people live in the city and 11.6 million in the entire area. Gross National Product (GNP) ranges from $60 billion to $90 billion, depending on source and method, and at least $200 billion for the region as a whole. In 2014, Rio ranked 53rd worldwide among the economically strongest metropolitan regions.


For comparison: In the " bitcoin country " El Salvador live 6.5 million people who generate a GNP of 27 billion dollars (nominal) or 59 billion dollars (adjusted). This would make the possible “crypto metropolis” Rio de Janeiro larger than the “crypto country” El Salvador.


However, it is not clear how high the surpluses are that Rio de Janeiro generates for its treasury. I haven't found any meaningful information on this on the non-Portuguese Internet. It seems that the corona virus has severely shaken the city's finances, for example with the almost complete collapse of tourism, which is so important for Rio. It is already assumed that the city will have to accept losses of more than 7.5 million dollars in 2022. In addition, there is a wave of bankruptcies in the retail sector, almost 70 percent of which have slipped into bankruptcy.


At the end of 2019, the city was probably on the verge of insolvency. The city government had to stop payments to city government and health care workers . A loan from the Brazilian government helped Rio out of a tight spot, and proceeds from the privatization of parts of the public infrastructure, such as the water supply , further improved the financial situation. Still, Rio seems desperate for revenue. Last year, for example, the city issued an ordinance that significantly reduced interest on arrears for debt payments due, for example from tax obligations.


However, it is doubtful whether Eduardo Paes, like Francis Suarez, is actually passionate about Bitcoin and has a vision of Rio as a tech metropolis. The mayor is now in his third term, which has been interrupted by several breaks. As BlockTrainer reports , Brazilian crypto youtuber Carol Souza of UseCripto tells that Paes is known to be very corrupt and wants to use the push to prepare for the 2022 local elections. She would first like to wait and see whether the announcement will be followed by action or whether it will remain with marketing.

My Top Picks
Honeygain - Passive earner that pays in BTC or PayPal
MandalaExchange -The Best no KYC crypto Exchange! 
BetFury - Play And Earn BFG for daily Bitcoin and ETH dividends!
Pipeflare - Faucet that pays in ZCash and Matic, Games pay in DAI
Womplay - Mobile dApp gaming platform that rewards in EOS and Bitcoin
Cointiply - The #1 Crypto Earning Site
Torum - Join the latest Social Network and earn TRM for Free! 
LiteCoinPay - The #1 FaucetPay earner for Litecoin 
Upland - Collect Digital Properties & Test Your Skills
LBRY/Odysee - YouTube Alternative that lets you earn Money by viewing videos!
FaucetPay - The #1 Microwallet Platform
FREEBTC - The #1 FaucetPay earner for Satoshi's
FaucetCrypto - An earning/faucet site that pays out instantly
FireFaucet - An earning site that pays better for some than Cointiply
DogeFaucet - Dogecoin Faucet
xFaucet - BTC, ETH, LTC, Doge, Dash, Tron, DGB, BCH, BNB, ZEC, FEY - Claim every 5 minutes
Konstantinova - BTC, ETH, LTC, Doge, Dash, Tron, DGB, BCH, BNB, ZEC, USDT, FEY, 25 Claims Daily

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

From offchain to offchain: Statechains meets Lightning

  Without a doubt, the most significant off-chain Bitcoin solution is the Lightning network. But in its wake, the statechain has emerged as an intriguing replacement. There is currently a proposal to link the two offchain networks. From an ocean, for example, you can see sunbeams glistening in the water, waves rippling, and possibly a jellyfish drifting toward the light. But you only see a small portion of it. The distance from the sea's surface to its bottom is hundreds of meters. It has dozens of different fish species swimming in it, crabs and starfish crawling on the bottom, shells clinging to rocks, and sea plants climbing up. A completely new world starts where your gaze diverges. You can picture a blockchain like Bitcoin, just like the sea. What you see on the outside is only a small portion of what is actually there; the set of UTXOs (coins) and transaction history that full nodes store are just the beginning of a much larger world. It's the plan, at least. With Bitcoin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Phishing attack on popular crypto sites tries to empty wallets

  Several major crypto sites such as Etherscan, CoinGecko, DeFi Pulse, and others report malicious pop-ups scammers use to try to trick users into connecting their MetaMask wallets. The phishing attack came from a domain displaying the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) logo. "We are investigating the root cause of this attack to fix the threat as soon as possible," CoinGecko founder Bobby Ong tweeted. The phishing attack appears to have been triggered by a malicious ad script from Coinzilla, a crypto ad network, according to CoinGecko. Etherscan also advises its users not to confirm any transactions that may appear on the website. The attackers attempted to use the hype around the “bored monkeys” non-fungible tokens (NFT) to gain access to the cryptocurrencies of unsuspecting website visitors. Although the websites affected by the scam attempt have reacted in the last few hours and deactivated the advertising pop-up, it is still recommended not to connect your MetaMask wallet to ne...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs stolen through phishing on Instagram

  Bored Ape Yacht Club ( BAYC ) developers announced on Monday that hackers have hijacked the official Instagram page of the popular NFT collection and posted links to a fake airdrop. Crypto enthusiasts who connected their MetaMask wallet to the rogue website subsequently had their Ape NFTs stolen. Apparently, the attack was planned to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the BAYC collection. This increased the "perceived credibility" of the phishing link. About 100 NFTs are said to have been stolen in the phishing attack . According to CoinGecko data , the minimum price for a BAYC NFT is 139 Ether ( ETH ) or $400,726. So if reports are correct, over $40 million worth of NFTs were stolen in the attack. These numbers are only the lowest estimate, however, as they are based on the lowest price.  At the time of writing, it was still unclear how the hackers gained access to BAYC's official Instagram account. Social media users have pointed out the importance of two-fact...
Post a Comment
Read more