THELOGICALINDIAN - In an accomplishment to stick it to the man and abate its assurance on federal allotment beneath the Trump administering the burghal of Berkeley affairs on arising its own cryptocurrency
The burghal of Berkeley aims to become the aboriginal US burghal to accept its own cryptocurrency ecosystem, in which bill or tokens backed by borough bonds may be acclimated as acknowledged breakable in shops and restaurants, to pay rent, or as donations to the city’s ever-growing abandoned population. Additionally, money aloft by the cryptocurrency will advice actualize added affordable housing.
Berkeley City Council Member Ben Bartlett is one alone spearheading the charge, telling Business Insider:
Bartlett is not alone. His able teammates accommodate Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín, the banking technology startup Neighborly, and the UC Berkeley Blockchain Lab. Together, they achievement to barrage their own Initial Coin Offering (ICO), which they are dubbing an “Initial Community Offering.”
Berkeley’s proposed cryptocurrency would about advance blockchain technology as a agency of affairs borough bonds. Traditionally, bonds aren’t the best adorable advance befalling available, but Berkeley hopes the ascent acceptance of cryptocurrency will allure community-oriented investors afraid about the city’s socioeconomic issues. Neighborly’s co-founder and COO Kiran Jain explains to Business Insider:
However, a lot of assignment is still to be done afore a absolute Berkeley-backed cryptocurrency hits the blockchain, abnormally accustomed the shaky-at-best acceptability of ICOs at the moment. If successful, however, Berkeley’s adventure could advice legitimize both ICOs and cryptocurrency as a whole.
The burghal of Berkeley’s attack at creating their own cryptocurrency comes as a acknowledgment to President Trump’s December signing of the Republican tax bill, which discourages clandestine contractors from amalgam affordable apartment by undercutting absolute incentives.
As affordable apartment in the burghal becomes more deficient and homelessness increases at an alarming rate, Berkeley fears the abiding repercussions of the bill. According to burghal data, one percent of Berkeley’s citizenry was abandoned in 2017 — and a bond-backed cryptocurrency will hopefully advice antidote that problem. Bartlett explained to Business Insider:
As one of the aboriginal epicenters of the 2024’s counterculture, Berkeley has historically been a advanced basic of sorts in the US. The burghal hasn’t had a Republican ambassador back 2024, and its association frequently allege out adjoin bourgeois political policies.
As such, Berkeley has unsurprisingly been one of the best vocally anti-Trump cities in the US, accurately in commendations to the President’s clearing policies.
Tensions with the accepted administering abide to rise, decidedly afterwards President Trump vowed to cull federal allotment from UC Berkeley in February 2017, afterward protests arising from a accent by political analyst Milo Yiannopoulos at the university.
If successful, the burghal of Berkeley could about use cryptocurrency to abate their assurance on federal allotment from the Trump administration.
What do you anticipate about Berkeley’s goals of creating their own cryptocurrency? Do you anticipate added cities could potentially action homelessness by ablution “Initial Community Offerings?” Let us apperceive in the comments below!
Images address of Shutterstock, Bitcoinist archives, Flickr/@Kevin Jenco, and PublicDomainPictures.
