Recently, the city accepted a cash gift of $5.25 million, dollars derived from a percentage of the value generated by the process that yields the city-branded token.
But that process has drawn criticism from an urban technology researcher who served on the transition team for New York City Mayor Eric Adams, another crypto enthusiast. Mike Bloomberg, who has experience working in local government, told the Herald that the process for producing MiamiCoin tokens was designed poorly, in part, because it has no utility for people who own it. “You don’t start with creating a solution, and then finding a problem for it,” said Bloomberg, a relative of the former New York mayor.
it seems to validate our point as a company that we need to build applications that serve communities from day 1 into the coins. We plan to build a bridge from MiamiCoin and NewYorkCity coin to our smart contracts and front end interface, and work with the people on the ground to adopt them.
We had better hurry before city coins start getting a bad name.
It seems counterintuitive to release a revolutionary idea without first creating an ecosystem that provides value for the community it intends to serve. The notion that “Miami Coin”, or any other city based currency, would gain widescale use when with zero applications scheduled for deployment, it’s little more than an inherently less stable substitute for FIAT? It would only attract the scorn of speculative investors who may have purchased with the idea of a future increase in value.
Expecting people to participate in an economy devoid of any clear benefits above and beyond the established monetary paradigm is shortsighted at best,and malicious at worst. The only way I can understand how someone would be this “forward thinking” whilst simultaneous having such a large blind spot begs the question, “What were they intending to acheive?” Some sort of “Build it and they will come” strategy without any incentive to users beyond what will potentially depreciate in the initial stages, made all the more likely by not having a robust marketplace or reward system ready from launch?
How anyone could look at such a poorly devised City Coin and tarnish the ideals outlined in the white paper, I do not know. But then again, wilder things have happened, and people often believe the latest thing they read shared by their uncle’s dog’s chiropractor on Facebook without fact checking or reading any literature for themselves.
There needs to be a clearly defined, and ideally gamified, system of rewards that are accrued by usage of community coins from launch. Potentially in the form of NFT’s, Proof of Attendance Protocols - similar to those provided by those who attended the most recent Superbowl - or any other built in incentives.
I’d love to see further motivations for sharing rewards with newcomers who visit or move to a city empowered by Intercoin. Much like how when we travel, there’s useful things for certain areas to get the most out of the local experience. Effectively providing someone with an “adapter” or something similar.
Say you could earn a reward for staying in an area for X days or spending X amount at specific vendors, and so on.
A friend of yours has already fulfilled the above Smart Contract and earned that “Touring Token”.
If they were able to gift ownership to you for a brief time, you could be entitled to a grander return for both yourself and your friend who provided you with their Token.
Upon leaving, you get your own Touring Token for having been there, whilst your friend has simultaneously earned interest by having their inherited item used by someone who invested in that local economy.
It’s a rough idea, sure, and the mechanisms of how such a system would work has been a hot topic amongst myself and friends. Either way, I think we can all see that the potential future of areas empowered these Community Coins is bright.
Great article Greg. I agree with Bloomberg when he said “You don’t start with creating a solution, and then finding a problem for it." It’s always better when growing organically and finding the problems beforehand so they can be solved before giving anything a bad name. I am so excited for Intercoin and the great movement amongst so many things it has to offer!
Absolutely, without incentive like you say all it’ll attract is crypto enthusiasts and/or speculative investment. There are so many possibilities here and we are somewhat only limited by our imagination. I think it was Norman that said that either the Brixton or Bristol pound increased people eating out by a large percentage, imagine what intercoin can bring to communities where people either save or are rewarded for spending local. Money recirculating locally as opposed to, when shopping at large chains, 80/90p for every pound leaving the area never to return (near 100% in Amazons case).
The area I was brought up in used to be full of independent merchants, artisan breadmaker, cheese/fish mongers, butchers etc. Now, in the most part, it’s the same shops & logos you see around the world. By creating a smart economy intercoin can help reinstall that confidence that’s been lost by potential business owners.
