Portsmouth embraces Bitcoin payments for city bills

In an effort to embrace virtual money, the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, will allow residents to pay their bills in Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. Deaglan McEachern, the city's mayor, proposed the idea to city officials, who feel it will provide residents with more payment choices.

As per a local news report from Seacoastonline on March 23, Mayor McEachern said that "there are waves of new things that will affect us in terms of our future that use the type of technology used in cryptocurrency." He went on to say:

"I want to make sure Portsmouth is not waiting around to see how this is going to affect us in the future because it's already affecting us."

McEachern said the City Hall has learned a lot more about cryptocurrencies and blockchains, as well as how to utilize them for improved city services. He also mentioned that any cryptocurrency payments would be immediately converted into U.S. dollars so that the change would have no impact on the city's monetary practices.

Governments' interest in cryptocurrencies is on the rise, as evidenced by this project. Miami and New York, for example, have been friendly to cryptocurrency adoption. As reported by Cointelegraph in mid-February, Colorado governor Jared Polis said the state government will allow residents to pay taxes in crypto as early as summer 2022.

Related: US lawmaker pushes for state-level regulations on stablecoins at hearing on digital assets

United States lawmakers have proposed handling any potential regulatory uncertainty around digital assets on a state level rather than waiting for a congress framework. Back in February, a Tennessee House of Representatives member proposed allowing the state to invest in cryptocurrency and nonfungible tokens.