Philadelphia To Integrate Blockchain With Government

The city of Philadelphia launched its own blockchain initiative aiming to integrate distributed ledger technology with the municipal government.

What Happened: The city invites people involved with blockchain technology and smart contracts to contact staff working on the project to help, according to an announcement by the City of Philadelphia Chief Innovation Officer Mark Wheeler.

The official also tweeted his congratulations for the first such initiatives to the city of Miami, which even launched its own MiamiCoin this summer.

The announcement follows New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams recently revealing that his administration is looking into spurring the local acceptance of Bitcoin BTC/USD and other cryptocurrencies as means of payment. Shortly before that, Adams announced he is going to get his first three paychecks as a mayor in Bitcoin, responding to the mayor of Miami's announcement that he is going to receive a single paycheck in the apex cryptocurrency.

There is no timeline for how long the study phase of Philadelphia's blockchain initiative will take. Wheeler said during a recent interview with StateScoop he is "trying to get a very good sense of the use cases, and why there could be a value proposition here, and that’s what the website is all about. We’re ready to talk.”