According to latest reports, the City Council of Zurich has rejected the request for an initiative that would have allowed residents to pay for utility bills and other public services using digital currency bitcoin.

Last month, a similar bitcoin project began in “crypto valley” Zug allowing residents to pay their fees in bitcoin. Payments are initially limited to an equivalent of 200 francs.

According to a local publication Finanz Und Wirtschaft, the Zurich City Council does not believe that cryptocurrencies will prevail in the medium term and has a skeptical view on bitcoin and other digital currencies. It will, therefore, not develop any strategies for using Bitcoin nor will make any arrangements to do so.

“That each person can open unlimited anonymous accounts, restricts the transparency and facilitates illegal goods to buy or wash dirty money”, the City Council said (loosely translated). It added that although cryptocurrencies are tamper-proof, they are IT dependent and have many questions unanswered.

The report further stated that the city council does not want to compromise its reputation by embarking on virtual currency, which carries high risk of abuse and loss.

“The City Council is not aware that citizens wanted paid fees or taxes in Bitcoin”, it added.

However, the council emphasized that it is “open-minded” to new technologies and said that if, in the future, cryptocurrencies prevail against all odds as widely accepted means of payment and the legal situation is clear, Zurich could enter the cryptoworld with relatively little effort.