Chandler residents can now pay utility bills with cryptocurrency

Chandler residents can now pay their utility bills using cryptocurrency, making the city one of the first in the metro Phoenix area to use cryptocurrency as a form of payment.

To pay with cryptocurrency, residents will need to use PayPal and have Bitcoin, Ethereum or Litecoin connected to their account. The option to use crypto will automatically pop up for residents when they select PayPal if there is enough in the account to cover the cost, according to the city.

Chandler, which is home to Intel and other technology companies, has long branded itself as a city that embraces innovation. Councilmember Mark Stewart said he advocated for using cryptocurrency as a way to offer more options to residents.

"We've transitioned away from an agrarian sort of community and a suburb into what we like to think is a silicon desert," Stewart said, referencing the region of northern California, Silicon Valley, known for its innovations in technology.

"The more opportunities that people can use cryptocurrency, as payment, whether that's buying a Coca-Cola at 7Eleven or paying their utility bill at the City of Chandler, it just gives them more customer service options, and that was the real goal here," he said.

In February, Colorado became the first state to accept cryptocurrency as

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payment for residents' fees and taxes.

Bitcoin and other forms of virtual currency

Cryptocurrencies are virtual forms of currency that use a decentralized system to verify and record transactions, according to USA Today. Forms of cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, Ethereum or Litecoin use blockchain technology to record and secure transactions.

However, the use and creation of cryptocurrency have prompted concerns from environmentalists over the amount of energy needed to produce the funds. Annually, Bitcoin alone can consume the same amount of electric

ity as some countries when being created, the New York Times reported.

Despite this, Dawn Lang, Chandler’s deputy city manager and chief financial officer, said in an interview that the ability for residents to pay for water and other essential services with different forms of currency outweighed the concerns.

Minimizing risk in volatile market

Invoice Cloud, the city's payment partner for online utility bill payments, implemented the new option into its system after the city researched if customers paying in cryptocurrency was feasible.

Lang said one of the city's concerns was the market volatility of cryptocurrency and so they knew from the beginning they wanted to work with a third party to mitigate the risk for Chandler.

When residents pay with cryptocurrency, Lang said, PayPal will lock in the market value of the cryptocurrency at that time and convert it to dollars as long as the amount they have covers the cost of the bill.

"It completely then eliminates any market volatility risk for Chandler because we're then just sent the U.S. dollar amount," Lang said.

Going forward, residents may have the option to use crypto as payment for other services.

"We're going to start with our utility services area, see if that works out well, and if so, we certainly do have the ability to expand into other areas, and that would probably be our next goal," Lang said.