Do Miami-Dade employees invest in Bitcoin? We now have an answer
By now, we know that many local elected officials, led by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, are all-in on making the city a cryptocurrency capital.
But what do county workers really think about crypto?
We now have one answer. On Wednesday, Miami-Dade County’s cryptocurrency task force unveiled the results of a survey of 343 county employees about their views toward bitcoin, blockchain and other digital currency subjects. Crypto is already under study by local legal experts. But a push in the county has been underway to get lay people’s view where possible.
The top-line finding of the survey: Two out of five county employees — or 40% of the respondents — already have invested in or otherwise used crypto — and 88% would be open to learning more about cryptocurrencies.
The 40% figure is much larger than the 16% of Americans who have invested in, traded or used digital currency, according to a Pew Research Center survey released in November. And it’s even more surprising given the demographics of those surveyed. Crypto has the reputation for being the province of younger, whiter techies. But the survey respondents were as diverse as the county itself, with 68% of respondents identifying as Hispanic and 14% Black. And 65% identified as 45 years or older.
JP Bado, an associate attorney with Genovese Joblove & Battista law firm, said the task force’s goal is not to endorse any single aspect of cryptocurrency. But he said the task force members are encouraged that there appears to be widespread interest in learning more about what the technology has to offer.
“We were ecstatic with the results,” Bado said of the survey. “What we saw was a lot of honesty, of people saying they might be aware of cryptocurrency but would like to have more education.”
The county’s survey showed 10% of employees have already used cryptocurrencies to pay for goods or services. That finding, too, is surprising, given that paying for everyday items is one of the biggest promises of crypto that has yet to catch on with the wider American public.
Still, it may be low enough that it gives county officials pause about investing in a vendor that would enable county departments to accept crypto as payment potentially for county fees and taxes.
Then again, there are some instances when the county’s accepting digital currency payments would make sense. Rather than everyday items, crypto appears to be increasingly used as a way to pay for big-ticket items like real estate. In theory, a company like FTX, the new namerights sponsor of the Miami Heat’s downtown arena, might want to make its annual multimillion-dollar payments to the county in crypto.
A spokesman for Danielle
Cohen Higgins, the county commissioner who recently sponsored the ordinance to create the crypto task force, said she had not yet seen the survey’s results so could not comment on them.
There is a giant caveat with the results: The 343 sample size contained vast overrepresentation by the county’s information technology department. While it was always going to be difficult to get a county bus driver to answer questions like these, the fact that 55% of the sample group came from a single tech-oriented group — with another 14% coming from the county’s finance department — should give pause when it comes to making the survey the final word of the task force.
Although the number of survey respondents is a fraction of the county’s about 8,000-member workforce, task force members say it’s statistically significant partly because the respondents represent a full range of departments from county employees in finance to fire.
The crypto task force is working to deliver a final report to the county commission in the coming weeks. Besides determining if the county can and should accept payments in crypto, the task force is also hoping to recommend whether county employees can take their salary in digital currency, and whether the county should be investing in it.
There was plenty of skepticism reflected in additional comments solicited by the survey.
“It is a digital age pyramid scheme which could collapse at any time without notice,” wrote one employee. “Even for longer term ‘safer’ cryptocurrencies, their price fluctuates far more than a currency reasonably should,” wrote another, adding, “Then there’s the environmental impact of crypto mining, as well as the resources required to mine crypto as the GPU shortages are partly caused by massive crypto farms using GPUs.”
A third employee asked why the county would want to invest its resources in it.
“If the county does not invest in the shares of publicly traded companies which are regulated by the SEC, audited by CPAs, represent ownership in the businesses in the U.S., how can you contemplate ‘investing’ in crypto with its crazy volatility which also earns no interest?”
Others were more upbeat. “Public records on the chain. Then utilize defi (decentralized finance) with local residents who hold and stake in pools and earn rewards and interest on loans to residents trying to buy,” one county employee said. “Let’s do it!
I’ve multiplied my savings more than any other investment I’ve been involved in,” said another.
For a county that has made bad bets in the past — think Marlins Park — banking on crypto may sound like another ludicrous idea. But the momentum already may be swinging in favor of its adoption. County employees — at least this survey subset — seem to be making it so.
Rob Wile: 305-376-3203, @rjwile