Portsmouth residents can now settle bills using crypto

• The mayor of Portsmouth doesn't want his city to miss out on the utility of crypto and blockchain tech
• He envisions a future where crypto transforms financial services, but he says it could serve the underbanked for now

Portsmouth, a small city in New Hampshire, is working to enable its residents to pay their bills in crypto. The city's mayor Deaglan McEachern vouched for the decision, saying City Hall is now more informed on how to leverage crypto and blockchain tech.

Crypto will redefine finance and the port city wants to be part of this future

According to a March 23 report from local news outlet Seacoastonline, the mayor acknowledged that into the future, this type of technology is likely to have an even bigger impact, and Portsmouth should not be left behind.

"There's waves of new things that are going to affect us in terms of our future that use the type of technology used in cryptocurrency. I want to make sure Portsmouth is not waiting around to see how this is going to affect us in the future because it's already affecting us," he said.

Therefore, onwards the residents of Portsmouth can now complete payments intended to settle bills using crypto PayPal. The payments services provider has been processing crypto payments on its platform for a while now.

"City customers who have cryptocurrency stored in their PayPal account can now make payments to the city using that cryptocurrency when they choose PayPal as their payment method. This new payment method has no impact on the city's financial practices as the cryptocurrency is converted to U.S. currency by PayPal before it is sent to our payment processor," revenue administrator Karen Conard said in a memo.

The utility of crypto

Mayor McEachern, who says he's been interested in crypto for a while now, explained that a severality in payment options for bills would likely result in improved participation. Given that Portsmouth is of small status as a city, he believes it's well-positioned to move ahead and experiment with this new space.

"If we can remove some friction from that process, I'd love to be able to bring that to Portsmouth," he said.

Notably, the mayor has asked that his $500 election bonus be given to him in crypto, in eagerness to learn about the process. Though he's yet to receive it, he eventually intends to convert it to fiat and donate the sum.