Town of Berkeley is about to develop into one of many first cities within the nation to include blockchain expertise in its municipal bond market, based on a Dec. 23 press launch issued by the mayor’s workplace.
This announcement comes after a unanimous metropolis council vote granted authorization for the town supervisor to work with a agency that can present assist to the town in growing a microbond financing program. Town of Berkeley has been working to develop the brand new blockchain market since 2019, based on the discharge.
To that finish, the town has been in dialog with Blockchain at Berkeley, which has labored to assist the town within the improvement of the challenge since 2019, based on Blockchain at Berkeley co-president Ratan Kaliani. Blockchain at Berkeley has expertise with comparable consulting initiatives and in educating individuals about blockchain, Kaliani added.
“At its core, blockchain expertise is a decentralized information ledger,” Kaliani stated. “It’s decentralized, so it doesn’t have any central level of failure like a financial institution or authorities.”
In response to Kaliani, conventional municipal bonds are expensive, onerous to entry and focused towards wealthier people.
The press launch states that the brand new microbond system permits municipal bonds to be bought for $100 or much less, versus the $5,000 buying minimal on conventional municipal bonds. Town anticipates that blockchain will improve entry to municipal bonds.
Mayor Jesse Arreguín stated within the press launch that incorporating blockchain into the town’s bond market is not going to solely crowdsource funding for metropolis initiatives but in addition present residents with extra funding alternatives.
Metropolis Councilmember Ben Bartlett, who’s credited with bringing this concept to the town, stated within the launch that the transparency blockchain promotes contributes to Berkeley’s imaginative and prescient of fairness and inclusion by creating extra funding entry for residents.
“I believe this is without doubt one of the first real-world examples of how cities and governments are making the most of blockchain expertise to actually uplift their residents,” Kaliani stated.
Kaliani stated incorporating blockchain into the town’s municipal bond market bridges the divide between these fluent in expertise and people who are much less fluent.
As soon as blockchain is improved, Kaliani stated it’s inevitable that the expertise will develop into extra built-in into every day lives due to its means to grant independence and entry to monetary alternatives to people.
Kaliani urged UC Berkeley college students and neighborhood members to care about improvement in expertise that has an impression on the neighborhood and improves individuals’s lives.
“It’s actually necessary to know not simply what new tech can do to enhance lives in a theoretical means, however truly take that expertise, put it right into a system that already exists and make it higher,” Kaliani stated.
Contact Anna Armstrong at [email protected], and observe her on Twitter at @annavarmstrongg.
