Free Bitcoin: Mayor of This US City Raising Funds to Give All Residents $1,000 in BTC

The mayor of Cool Valley, a city in the U.S. state of Missouri, is raising funds in order to give bitcoin to all residents in his city. However, he does not want them to sell their bitcoin immediately, noting that when the price of the cryptocurrency is $500,000 per coin years later, people are “going to really regret” selling.

Mayor of Cool Valley Plans to Give Bitcoin to All Residents

Cool Valley is a small U.S. city in St. Louis County, Missouri, with a population of about 1,500. The city mayor, however, has an ambitious plan to make residents of his city wealthy, and it involves giving everyone bitcoin.

Cool Valley Mayor Jayson Stewart shared his plans on Thursday in an interview with KSDK, an NBC-affiliated television station. Noting that he is raising funds to put bitcoin in the hands of every inhabitant of the city, the mayor said:

It’s digital gold. I would like to see every single household in my city receive some level of bitcoin, whether it be $500 or $1,000.

“I have friends whose lives have been completely changed, like going from working a regular nine to five job to being worth over 80 million dollars in a matter of a few years,” added Mayor Stewart, who calls himself an entrepreneur and environmentalist.

He revealed that most of the money to fund his bitcoin giveaway plan will come from several unnamed BTC investors, elaborating:

I have some very supportive donors who have agreed to match any money that I raise up to several millions of dollars. I’m trying to get a few government funds as well to go along with that, or potentially some of the relief money that comes in from the Covid relief.

When asked whether city funds would also be used, Mayor Stewart replied: “It’s possible. We’ll see how it goes.”

The mayor does not want residents to sell their bitcoin soon after receiving it, however. To prevent this from happening, he said: “We’re putting in place, like, a vesting schedule for bitcoin. The idea is that maybe you don’t touch it for five years before you really get full access to it.” Mayor Stewart clarified:

We’re working on ideas like that because that’s my number one concern. [If] Someone just sells their bitcoin to pay their car note, and then when bitcoin is sitting at like $500,000 all these years later, they’re going to really regret that.

The media outlet spoke with a dozen residents of Cool Valley about the mayor’s bitcoin idea. While some of them had never heard of bitcoin or cryptocurrency, they seem receptive to the plan.

Ramona Nickels, a mail carrier who lives in Cool Valley, said: “My daughter says she thinks it’s the next big thing, the digital currency … With cash people have bad habits and they buy things they shouldn’t be buying. But with bitcoin, maybe you can give it to your kids. My daughter is going to college next year. I could give [bitcoin] to her.”

“Putting money in my pocket sounds pretty good to me,” said Cornelius Webb, another resident of Cool Valley.

Mayor Stewart opined:

I believe that Cool Valley is going to get wealthier and wealthier, not just our city, but the actual people who live here.

Addressing environmental concerns that some people associate with bitcoin, Mayor Stewart said his city will take proactive measures to offset the known environmental impact of the cryptocurrency. “We’re giving away bitcoin and at the same time we’re converting our entire city to solar, like all of the government lights and things like that,” he described.

The mayor also talked about some of the plans to get residents familiar with cryptocurrency, including offering free classes about how to use and securely store bitcoin. Stewart hopes to kick things off by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, some cities in the U.S. are trying to become bitcoin hubs, including Miami, Florida, and Jackson, Tennessee. The mayors of the two cities are trying to get their local governments to accept bitcoin for payments and potentially keep BTC on their balance sheets.