Roswell becomes world’s first city to announce strategic bitcoin reserve | News
Over $5,000 in BTC donated to hold 10 years: Designated for disaster fund and seniors
Roswell, New Mexico, has made history, becoming the first municipal entity in the world to offer a physical receipt for a bitcoin donation. Mayor Pro Tem Juliana Halvorson ceremonially signed the receipt Tuesday evening at the office of the Roswell Daily Record, recognizing the Roswell Strategic Reserve and Bitcoin Emergency Fund. The signed receipt makes Roswell the first municipality to accept a bitcoin donation and to offer a tax-deductible receipt for contributions that exceed a fair market value of $250.
The groundwork for the reserve was laid in January through a donation from an individual who read a column in the Daily Record about Roswell possibly establishing such a bitcoin reserve. The reader then sent the column’s author a donation of $3,000 in bitcoin value to make the idea a reality, which City Councilor Cristina Arnold began investigating processes by which the city might be able to accept the donation, conferring with finance Committee member, Councilor Ed Heldenbrand.
Tuesday’s actions received worldwide attention from the “bitcoiner” community. It was preceded Monday by a post on the Bitcoin News social media account that featured a photo of one of Roswell’s welcome signs with an orange bitcoin logo added to the graphic. A post made by Bitcoin Magazine on Tuesday of a photo of the signed document received more than 1,000 reposts, as well as over 4,000 likes and more than 200 comments. Since the post, additional donations continued to be made, bringing the reserve’s value to over $5,200 as of press time, up from $2,906 when Halvorson signed the receipt Tuesday.
City Attorney Hess Ynetma told the Daily Record in an email that under New Mexico law, municipalities can acquire real and personal property.
“Personal property is broad and includes tangible and intangible assets; this would include Bitcoin. The City is always grateful when a donation is made to further the public good,” Ynetma wrote.
In addition to bitcoin, the receipt for the reserve also contains a provision to accept “U.S. dollars, land, property or other asset(s)” as donations.
The receipt states that the bitcoin and all donations will be held for 10 years and then used for stipends to cover a portion of the water bills of Roswell senior citizens based on the amount of continuing donations and any increased value of the reserve.
If the reserve ever accrues more than $1 million, it could be used as a liquid emergency fund for up to 21% of its value for declared disaster relief, pending a vote of unanimous support from the Roswell City Council. That option can only be exercised once every five years.
Halvorson told the Daily Record she was initially not on board with the idea of the reserve due to bitcoin’s price volatility. However, she became supportive after learning that no taxpayer funds or city resources would be diverted into it. Other councilors also applauded the idea, which will place Roswell on the map for bitcoiners.
“What an amazing step forward for the future,” Heldenbrand said Monday in a text message to the Daily Record.
The reserve address’s activity is viewable online for Roswell citizens and anyone with the link to see, showing at press time 18 total transactions of received bitcoin, including the $3,000 seed donation.
For those with bitcoin apps desiting to donate to the Roswell reserve, the receipt signed by Halvorson also includes a QR code for receiving bitcoin as well as the typed version of the city’s bitcoin address:
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