A couple of days back on April 12th, The Acadiana Advocate, a local news channel reported that Joel Robideaux, the Mayor-president of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana has put forward a proposal for the Parish government to develop its own cryptocurrency.

The local news also reported that other than launching a local cryptocurrency Robideaux has also requested the Parish government to consider launching an Initial Coin Offering (ICO).

Robideaux mentioned that Lafayette should be perceived as a technological hub, and in his annual speech at the Heymann Center he paid more emphasis on this topic.

Robideaux believes that by launching its own cryptocurrency the Parish Government could benefit tremendously as it would become easier to attract more investors which in turn will bring more money into the Parish.

Several reports have shown that the general fund of the Lafayette Parish budget is “all but wiped out”, thus this move would prove to be the much needed financial help, in addition to enhancing government services and diversifying the local economy.

According to Robideaux, he believes this could potentially create a new way of supporting the local public. As per his statement, it says,

“It’s not just a handful of universal libertarians that need untraceable, unregulated and safe digital currency transactions. It’s the realization by global stakeholders that the world of Finance, banking, and payment structures have undergone a complete change, that the healthcare sector, government and most likely every other industry is about to be disrupted.”

The news outlet further reported that the earnings from a cryptocurrency ICO shall be used to, “develop an actual lab of blockchain researchers and developers.”

However, Robideaux did not share the exact detail of how a local cryptocurrency would lure in investors and what the proposed blockchain lab might consist of.

According to his statement, the basic idea behind this is to, “Come up with solutions for any government inefficiencies, and, more significantly, substitutes for financing public infrastructure.”

Back in February 2018, an ICO launch was being considered by Berkeley, California for the purpose of raising money to fulfill necessities like affordable housing and other initiatives. This idea of an ICO launch was due to President Donald Trump’s threatening action to cut the municipality’s federal funding.