Request from Vice Mayor Negrete that the city council direct the City Manager to work with The Proof of Workforce Foundation, a Nonprofit, to pilot a Santa Monica Bitcoin Office program, at no cost, to explore the following initiatives:
1. Bitcoin education for Santa Monica residents, students, businesses and workforce;
2. Identify and facilitate Bitcoin initiatives/partnerships that support Santa Monica’s economic recovery and cultivate economic growth, while attracting a global Bitcoin Conference and tourism industry;
3. Identify remote and local career opportunities for Santa Monica residents and students; and
4. Explore the potential of utilizing stranded city generated renewable energy to explore environmentally neutral bitcoin mining.
Bitcoin is now in its 15th year of existence, currently over a trillion dollar Industry. More importantly it is the largest, most powerful decentralized computer network in the world.
The Bitcoin Network has applications across many industries worldwide including but not limited to:
• capturing stranded renewable energy and stabilizing electrical grids • serving as a payment rail for those living under authoritarian regimes • serving as a digital asset for U.S. Pension Funds which now hold bitcoin on the balance sheet.
These initiatives shall be brought back to the city council by no more than 90 days.