Edmonton, a Bitcoin-friendly city.
Oil and gas have been the bread and butter of our province’s economy for decades, but it is time to diversify as a society. We need to expand our horizons if we want to continue to be relevant in the current economy. Previous municipal administrations have done a good job at establishing a Tech Sector base here in Edmonton and now it is time to accelerate.
We need to lead innovation and we have several opportunities in front of us. One of these resides with cryptocurrency. Edmonton is the headquarter of Bitcoin Well. Bitcoin Well is the world’s first publicly traded bitcoin ATM company. As of July 30, 2021, Bitcoin Well was officially trading on the TSX exchange.
What can we do in Edmonton to support and attract these companies? These companies normally don’t need venture capital. What they need is an inviting environment and infrastructure.
In the case of Bitcoin Well, Edmonton simply needs to declare itself a Cryptocurrency friendly city ( following Miami’s example). This comes with no cost to our citizens and is a simple step that would significantly leverage ourselves in the global standing as being a forward standing city. It is an opportunity to put Edmonton on the map. This simple act would help draw attention, draw investment, draw employment, and draw momentum to our city.
They also need talent and awareness.
We need to create an environment that will harness local talent. We need to expose our children and youth to these new exciting career opportunities. We should be incentivizing our schools and communities to get educated and familiarized with how cryptocurrency works. There is a transfer of wealth happening in our society right now. We can either seize the opportunity, become early adopters by taking advantage and profiting from this change or we can follow afterward and lose the momentum. These are good-paying jobs for our youth.
Innisfil, Ontario is another visionary city that has been running a pilot project regarding Cryptocurrency. Starting in April 2019, the town of Innisfil started offering Bitcoin as a payment option for property taxes in alliance with Coinberry Limited. The town of Innisfil is the first municipality in Canada to offer this service. There is much Edmonton can learn from Innisfil.
Do we need to fix our potholes and take care of our core services? ABSOLUTELY, but in the process, there are several opportunities that do not cost any money to our citizens and that can have a tremendous positive impact.
I am hoping to be part of a city council that is forward-thinking and that will propel Edmonton in the right direction by using common sense and creativity.