The government of Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital, intends to enable its citizens to pay certain taxes using cryptocurrency. According to local media, the statement was made on a recent Zoom call by Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, the leader of the Buenos Aires administration. This programme is part of a city-wide digitization drive to improve residents’ access to documents and government services.
According to Larreta, the goal of this initiative, called “Buenos Aires+,” is to “simplify and streamline the interaction between people and the city.” On the significance of blockchain for this digitization effort (which aims to automate 70% of procedures in its first year of implementation), Diego Fernández, secretary of Innovation and Digital Transformation, said:
This suggestion is similar to one made in March by the government of Rio de Janeiro, which also declared that it would accept cryptocurrencies as payment for some types of taxes beginning next year.
The creation of a digital ID system, which would allow people easy access to document requests and payments made to the city, is one of the important initiatives that the city is aiming to fulfil. The system also attempts to be interoperable, which means that various government agencies may interact with it in different ways. This may presumably assist in simplifying time-consuming errands between multiple government agencies, allowing citizens to manage all of their chores on the same system.
Other government agencies might link their systems to this hub, enabling them to immediately access the data.
