Is Panama’s Mayor a Crypto Genius or Just a Dreamer? 🤔💰

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In the bustling heart of Panama City, where the air is thick with ambition and the scent of opportunity, Mayor Mayer Mizrachi, a man of peculiar ideas, stood before an audience at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas. With a glint of mischief in his eye, he proposed a rather audacious scheme: what if, he pondered, cargo ships could hasten their passage through the illustrious Panama Canal by merely offering a tribute in Bitcoin? Ah, the audacity! Such a fleeting thought, yet it ignited a tempest of inquiries about the feasibility of this whimsical notion.

Bitcoin Payments For Priority Passage

As the mayor shared the stage with the luminaries of El Salvador’s Bitcoin policy, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert, he mused aloud about the prospect of ships “cutting the line” by paying their tolls in the digital currency. A reward for the early adopters, he claimed, as if the world of shipping were a carnival where the first in line received a golden ticket. Yet, beneath this light-hearted banter lay a profound question: could the swift currents of cryptocurrency truly intertwine with the age-old traditions of maritime commerce?

“What if you have a perk for paying in bitcoin?” Mizrachi mused, a sly smile creeping across his face. “You’d get to go faster.”

— Ray (@ray4tesla) May 30, 2025

Questions Over Fees And Fairness

But lo! The winds of change are seldom gentle. The current doctrine of the Canal, a steadfast first-come, first-served policy, would require the blessing of the Panama Canal Authority and the national government. A daunting task, indeed! Shipping companies, those guardians of the seas, might rise in protest, fearing that the smaller vessels would be cast adrift in a sea of unfairness. Even the former President of the United States, Donald Trump, weighed in, lamenting the “unfair tolls” faced by American ships, as if the Canal were a playground for the privileged.

Handling A $5 Billion Business

Ah, the Panama Canal, a veritable goldmine, raking in approximately $5 billion in revenue between October 2023 and September 2024. Nearly 10,000 ships traversed its waters, carrying a staggering 423 million tons of goods—about 5% of the world’s maritime commerce! Yet, should Bitcoin be embraced, the Authority would need to devise a strategy to navigate the treacherous waters of price volatility. One day, a toll might be 50 BTC, and the next, a staggering 60 BTC! A quick exchange system would be paramount, lest the good people of Panama find themselves adrift in a sea of uncertainty.

A Push For City-Level Crypto

In a further twist of fate, Mizrachi has championed the idea of allowing citizens to pay their city fees—taxes, fines, and permits—in Bitcoin, Ether, and USDC. A Bitcoin reserve for Panama City, he proposed, a bold move for a city that contributes over half of the nation’s GDP. Yet, he acknowledged that the path to realization would require the cooperation of lawmakers and officials at the national level. For now, it remains a mere proposal, a dream waiting to be awakened.

With a flourish, Mizrachi claimed that over $5 billion in Bitcoin transactions occur in Panama each year, much of it, he lamented, “behind closed doors.” Ah, the intrigue! The shadows of the financial world dance around us, and we are left to wonder: is this the dawn of a new era, or merely a fleeting fancy?

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2025-05-31 07:20