One project that could help city officials’ efforts comes from CityCoins, which is a new kind of open-source ecosystem that lets cities create their own cryptocurrency — and then allow citizens to support their cities while earning yield in Bitcoin.

On the tech side, CityCoins are powered by Stacks – which is a protocol that enables smart contracts on the Bitcoin network. The community mines to create CityCoins after which STX tokens are forwarded into the smart contract in a given Stacks block.

From that point on, 70% of mining rewards are distributed to people who chose to stack their CityCoins (Stackers) — while the remaining 30% of mining rewards are sent (in STX) to a city’s custodied reserve wallet.

The city can claim this and convert their STX to USD whenever they want. And this is the way the city can finance special projects for the benefit of all citizens.

Because a city’s tokens are programmable, developers can create almost anything, from a voting app to accessing CityCoins-exclusive spaces.

As of February 2022, CityCoins has been implemented in Miami (MiamiCoin), New York City (NYCCoin) and Austin (AustinCoin) — while Philadelphia is looking to join the scheme in the near future, as well.

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There is a need for new systems, new products, and new ways of thinking for this underserved community to get a fair shot at wealth and prosperity. And that’s what the fintech company called Mobility Capital Finance, Inc. (MoCaFi) is all about – to provide the financial infrastructure for cities to create an equitable government.

That infrastructure includes a multifunctional city card that provides users with access to emergency disbursements, banking for the unbanked, transport, libraries, local discounts and more.

Some of the places where a MoCaFi-enabled program has been implemented include:

• Los Angeles: Sidewalk Vendors received rebate payments from the city of LA through MoCaFi Immediate Response Incentive cards.
• Brooklyn: Bed-Stuy Restoration Corp distributed over $200,000 in COVID relief to eligible families via MoCaFi Immediate Response Incentive Cards.
• Honolulu: Honolulu Immediate Response Incentive Cards issued to 4,000 residents with $500 loaded for purchase at grocery & convenience stores across O’ahu island.
• Newark: Offers MoCaFi Immediate Response Incentive Cards to participants of the city’s Universal Basic Income (UBI) program.
• Miami: Back to Work Program issued $250 Immediate Response Incentive Mastercards to eligible residents for financial assistance during COVID-19 pandemic .
• Atlanta: Greater Atlanta Builds Credit delivers Rental Payment assistance and financial coaching to Atlanta families.
• New Orleans: The Crescent City Card Program involves a series of initiatives and products to offer financial inclusion, access to emergency disbursements, incentives to drive economic growth, empower underbanked residents, and provide better access to City services.

In addition to providing credit/debit cards, the company’s offering also includes the MoCaFi Bill Pay that lets users add Billers and issue checks to pay them from the app without logging into separate websites or writing physical checks. This is important as rental payments made by check to the landlord are eligible to be reported to Equifax and TransUnion as a way to boost one’s credit score with a positive payment history. Rent funds are immediately debited from the user’s account and the check is mailed in 1 business day. New payment history is added to the credit profile in 30-45 days.

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