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PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Residents in Portsmouth looking to pay the city can now dip into their crypto wallets.
The City of Portsmouth now accepts payments in cryptocurrency for any outstanding debts that need to be paid to the city, according to the City. City Manager Karen Conrad made the announcement during this week's city council meeting, and Mayor Deaglan McEachern said he sees this as a great opportunity for Portsmouth.
"I think there's a lot with the underlying technology of blockchain that a municipality can learn from," Mayor McEachern said. "I hope that there's an opportunity for us to do more around this just so we are not missing out on anything whether it's raising money or creating more opportunities to have more trust in digital formats."
The city can accept cryptocurrency thanks to its online payment partner Invoice Cloud, which uses Paypal as a payment option. Paypal recently gave users the option to pay with cryptocurrency if they have any on their accounts. If a user pays with cryptocurrency, it will be instantly converted into U.S. currency by Paypal before it is sent to the payment processor.
As of now, the city will only accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin because these are the only cryptocurrencies available for buying and selling on Paypal.
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Mayor McEachern said in the future the city may create a subcommittee to explore the further use of cryptocurrency and encouraged any citizens interested in being involved in the process to reach out to the city. Conrad said the state of New Hampshire is still working to fully allow cities to accept or own cryptocurrency, without the need for a third party.
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