Making use of crypto technology’s “blockchain” to store birth certificates, property deeds and other government documents is “the way of the future,” according to New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
“To have, to use blockchain from everything — to look at deeds, to deal with birth certificates, other records, this is the way of the future and we’re excited about it,” Adams told a room full of cryptocurrency investors on Monday.
Backers of the idea argue that storing one-of-a-kind government documents on a digital ledger — in a similar manner to NFTs — would cut down on administrative costs and fraud.
Other municipalities including Cook County, Illinois and South Burlington, Vermont have experimented with using the blockchain for property deeds in recent years.
And in 2019, a Brazilian hospital put a newborn child’s birth certificate exclusively on the blockchain through a partnership with IBM, local media reported.
Adams has long promoted cryptocurrencies and related technologies, but Monday appears to be the first time he has endorsed putting government documents on the blockchain.
“The stagnation, the inability of government to have these partnerships between corporate entities and government is what’s keeping us back from solving so many problems,” Adams said.
Adams famously converted his first three mayoral paychecks into bitcoin and ethereum this January and February in an effort to one-up the mayor of Miami. The current crypto crash means Adams is likely underwater on the investments.
Bitcoin has tanked 38% so far this year, while ethereum is down 46%.
Adams Press Secretary Fabien Levy declined to say whether Adams had sold any of his cryptocurrency investments ahead of the current crash.
“We don’t comment on the mayor’s personal investments,” Levy told The Post. “There are personal financial disclosures that he has to fill out that has this information in it.”
The mayor made the comments during a brief speech at the Security Token Summit — a cryptocurrency conference in Manhattan — just days after a massive crash last week wiped out billions of dollars worth of crypto investments.
Attendees at the $2,000-a-ticket event nervously talked about the collapse of stablecoin TerraUSD as they chowed down on croissants, fruit and coffee.
Despite the uncertainty, Adams reassured jittery crypto fanatics that “Fintech, blockchain, crypto is here to stay.”
