The Florida governor’s budget proposal aims to allow residents to pay fees in cryptocurrencies

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has officially proposed to the state government to allow companies to pay government fees in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC).

The Republican governor announced the idea as part of the 2022–2023 draft budget, which was announced on December 9th.

According to official budget highlights, DeSantis proposed allocating $ 200,000 to the Department of Financial Services to allow Florida companies to “pay state fees through online cryptocurrency.”

“Florida promotes cryptocurrency as a trading medium and increases the attractiveness of Florida for companies and economic growth,” says the document.

DeSantis is also proposing an additional $ 500,000 allocation to explore the potential of blockchain technology to keep vehicle records, validate Medicaid transactions, and detect potential fraud.

The total proposal of $ 700,000 should make a crypto-friendly Florida possible, the budget proposal says.

Florida has slowly emerged as a major crypto-friendly jurisdiction in the United States as one of its major cities, Miami, is actively promoted as the “Bitcoin and Crypto Capital” of the world.

Related:Navigating CityCoins: Citizens of Miami earn Bitcoin even though the city doesn’t hold cryptocurrency

Last month, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez announced that he would be the first US lawmaker to accept part of his salary in bitcoin. According to the report, he officially owns both BTC and Ether (ETH).

In September, Miami city commissioners voted to accept funds generated by the new cryptocurrency MiamiCoin, launched in August through the CityCoins smart contract protocol, after generating more than $ 21 million in dividends in mid-November MiamiCoin will be available to all Miami residents in the form of a bitcoin dividend, according to the city’s mayor.