Jackson, Tennessee Mayor Scott Conger is Sold on Bitcoin

The young mayor wants to enable Jackson residents pay their property tax with Bitcoin.

By Tim Hakki

2 min read

Jackson, Tennessee’s 37-year-old mayor, Scott Conger, took to Twitter on Friday to tweet several developments in his ongoing mission to make Jackson a Bitcoin-friendly city. 

Conger said that a blockchain task force he formed has discussed accepting property tax payments in Bitcoin and allowing the city's employees to invest in Bitcoin through dollar-cost averaging—where investors buy Bitcoin periodically to negate its volatility. 

The mayor, who two years ago became the youngest elected mayor in Jackson’s history, also said that Bitcoin can solve America’s creeping inflation rates.

Conger tweeted: “Why do we accept inflation? Why don’t we demand more from our federal government? 6.3% in 2 years. 172.8% in my lifetime. Every year our dollar is worth less. There is no rebound. There is only 1 fix for this.. #Bitcoin.”

Conger has been sold on Bitcoin for a while. He’s added laser eyes to his profile picture to signal his prediction that Bitcoin will rise to $100,000. And on April 8, he tweeted that he’d met with Miami’s Bitcoin bull mayor, Francis Suarez, to work out how to integrate cryptocurrencies into Jackson’s economy. 

Conger told Blockworks that Mayor Suarez got him interested in using Bitcoin in cities. “It really hit home once it was pointed out the price of lumber in dollars — massive inflation — vs the price in Sats [a tiny denomination of Bitcoin],” he said. Lumber, he concluded, would be cheaper if bought with Bitcoin.

Conger also told Blockworks that he hopes Jackson becomes a hub for crypto mining operations in the future. With Francis Suarez offering exiled Chinese crypto miners refuge in the city and a slice of Dade County’s nuclear power, Conger will have to raise the bar.

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