Toronto City Council Wants to Accept Payments for Council Rates in Cryptocurrencies

The city of Toronto is looking for ways through which cryptocurrencies could be incorporated in everyday business use.

The proposal was set in motion during a council meeting on February 2, 2018 by Councilor Norman Kelly and seconded by Councilor Chin Lee. The councilor suggested that the city should analyze the prospect of allowing cryptocurrencies as means of payments for transactions ranging from municipal property taxes, utilities, parking violations and Municipal Land Transfer taxes.

The proposal which is still being worked out for submission to the city’s Executive Committee during the second quarter of 2018 is also intended to allow the city to make payments in cryptocurrency.

The proposal talks about the growing interests shown by businesses and governments with regards to cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology that has the potential of changing the way governments and businesses carry out their activities.

Councilman Kelly revealed that presently there are other blockchain development projects that city council is interested in.  Furthermore, the City of Toronto and the Federal government are partnering with some banks and are running tests to see how applicable blockchain technology can be in daily life.

In the meantime, Canada is not being left behind; the country is collaborating with Netherlands to come up with possible ways of using blockchain technology for air travel.

Kelly noted that he does not want Canada to lag behind other countries when it comes to development in technology. He believes that the country should lead the pack rather than being at its tail end.

Regardless of Councilman Kelly’s fears of his city being at the tail end of the crypto race, there is still huge interest in cryptocurrencies among the people in the city and several cryptocurrency meetings have been organized there.