North Dakota City Starts Accepting Crypto For Utility Bill Payments

North Dakota city started accepting crypto for utility bill payments and now the city of Williston hopes to expand the options if the interest and volume for payments are significant as we can see more in our latest crypto news.

The North Dakota city of Williston plans to accept cryptocurrencies for utility bills online payments and became the first city in the state to adopt crypto assets. As per City Finance Director Hercules Cummings, the city partnered with BitPay as one of the biggest payment service providers in the US and the payments will be converted from crypto to fiat in real-time. The city council will monitor how the citizens respond to crypto payments and the utility bills will be the only bills available to be paid with crypto.

If the volume and interest however remain significant, the city will expand the options by allowing landfills, licenses, and permits to be paid with crypto. Individuals willing to do so have to visit the official website of the city and enter their account information to receive an emailed BitPay invoice and then choose their digital wallet as well as the crypto of choice and licenses to be paid with crypto. The individuals that are willing to do so only have to visit the official website of the city and to enter their account information to receive an emailed BitPay invoice and to also choose their digital wallet and the crypto of choice that they want to play with.

The citizens can benefit quite a low from cost savings when using crypto because exchanges only charge 1% for every transaction, unlike other payment services that can charge up to 3%. Cummings noted that his city is only responding to a growing trend and the technological changes and added that cryptocurrencies represent innovation for the finance department and a significant step to take the lead across the nation:

“We are pioneers in the state. This is just one of many, many things that’s going to be rolling out of the finance department. We’ve got a lot of exciting things to unveil later on to be the first of many. Our goal is to be industry leaders, not industry laggers.”

Williston is now the third government entity in the US to embrace cryptocurrencies as adoption enhances in the country. Wyoming is one of the states which registered Ripple as an entity and has a few crypto-friendly laws.