A new cryptocurrency is being launched in New York City named after the metropolis itself. The New York Coin is a community-proposed project and has got the blessing of the city’s mayor-elect Eric Adams. Adams is the strongest public officer holder voice to come out of the city who is banking on the popularity of the crypto sector to turn the city into a regional hub. Previously, New York was considered an crypto-skeptic city at least with the overall state being rated the hardest for crypto companies to get into.
The New York Coin (NYCCoin) is being launched by CityCoins, a firm that has some success with launching city-focused coins like MiamiCoin. The project is expected to use Stacks protocol built on top of the Bitcoin Blockchain network to help issue its coins and enable smart contracts.
The project was endorsed by the New York Mayor:
We’re glad to welcome you to the global home of Web3! We’re counting on tech and innovation to help drive our city forward. https://t.co/SY9pv1Ebct
— Eric Adams (@ericadamsfornyc) November 8, 2021
Users can mine NYCCoin through staking and then convert them into CityCoins for actual transactions.
This is a new chapter for the crypto sector’s progress in the city as previously, successive regimes have clamped down on the cryptocurrency hard. So much so that several top crypto apps in the country weren’t even available in the city like Coinbase itself. But, since the industry has become popular, more and more politicians are coming out to favour the digital economy and shed any pretence of being tough regulators. Adams in particular has already said that he will accept his salary in Bitcoin, a big step forward for the city.
But, while the city of New York is going pro-crypto, the state government is still very skeptical on the matter. The current and previous governors of the state were all crypto-skeptics and did what they could to stall or over-regulate the sector. This hurt the industry and many top companies never even bothered to offer their services here. So, while Adams enters the scene with much crypto-fanfare, he will find it somewhat difficult to implement the full extent of his agenda without support from the state government. However, it still remains to be seen what will happen as the crypto sector has become so popular in recent memory that politicians won’t get much political mileage being against it any more. So, we can at least expect that Adams will have the space to enforce at least some of his pro-crypto agenda in the near future.
Image Source: pixabay.com
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