In recent years, cryptocurrency has been prevalent in our society today. Some countries even opt to use some cryptocurrency as their legal tender. The pioneering example of this is the country El Salvador. It is the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency Bitcoin legal tender. Furthermore, each nation little by little is slowly opening up to the idea of cryptocurrency as part of their normal transactions. With the rising use of cryptocurrency around the world, many government agencies are venturing into allowing transactions in the government to involve cryptocurrencies. Another example of this is the decision of Buenos Aires to allow its citizens to pay their taxes using cryptocurrency.
Horacio Larreta, the head of the government of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, said that the city will allow its inhabitants to pay some taxes with cryptocurrency. This is part of a digitization initiative that the city has termed “Buenos Aires+”. The initiative intends to simplify the interaction the city has with its inhabitants.
Buenos Aires Government to Introduce Cryptocurrency Tax Payments
The government of Buenos Aires is seeking to allow its inhabitants to pay some taxes with cryptocurrency. According to local media, the statement was made by Horacio Rodriguez Larreta – chairman of the Buenos Aires administration. He confirmed it on a recent Zoom call. This project is part of a digitization push the city is seeking to conduct. This is to increase the access of citizens to documents and government services.
This initiative termed “Buenos Aires+,” intends to “simplify and streamline the link with citizens and the city,” according to Larreta. On the importance of blockchain for this digitalization effort (that wants to automate 70 percent of formalities during its first year of implementation).
Diego Fernández, secretary of Innovation and Digital Transformation believes that blockchain technology will give the government the option to make all its acts more transparent and stimulate the participation of citizens in a deeper way.
This idea is identical to the one offered by the government of Rio de Janeiro in March. It also stated that it will accept cryptocurrencies as payment for specific sorts of taxes starting next year.
Digital Identification Project
One of the primary initiatives that the city is trying to complete is the creation of a digital ID system. This would help citizens streamline document requests and payments made to the city. The system also attempts to be interoperable, meaning that many organizations of the government might interact with it in different ways. This might also presumably help to streamline time-consuming errands amongst multiple government departments. In addition, this would result in offering the public the chance of handling all their duties in the same system. Other public organizations could connect their systems to this hub, allowing them to likewise make use of the data directly.
Fernandez released a statement that people will be able to exercise control over their information. The government is establishing a platform so that customers will be able to see who is accessing their data and what they are looking at at all times. Thus, these orders will be processed through an open blockchain-based mechanism.
