Mayor pitches making Vancouver a ‘Bitcoin-friendly city’
City council is set to debate a proposal by Mayor Ken Sim to make Vancouver a “Bitcoin-friendly city” on Wednesday.
Sim’s motion would direct city staff to look into how to integrate the cryptocurrency into the city’s financial strategies, including potentially accepting taxes and fees in Bitcoin.
It would also direct staff to look into “the potential conversion of a portion of the city’s financial reserves into Bitcoin to preserve purchasing power and guard against the volatility, debasement and inflationary pressures of traditional currencies.”
Sim was unavailable for an interview on Monday.
But in an interview with the U.S.-based cryptocurrency podcast Coin Stories last week, he said he’d been “orange pilled” — that is, turned onto Bitcoin, about five years ago.
“It really opened my eyes up to the benefits of Bitcoin and how this world with fiat (government-backed) currency is really driving off a cliff,” Sim claimed.
“The big underlying challenge is people can’t afford to live here because our currency is getting debased. We have to say something.
Werner Antweiler, a professor of economics at UBC’s Sauder School of Business, said Sim’s proposal brings a level of risk municipalities usually avoid.
“The volatility in Bitcoin is in the same league as some of the highest volatility tech stocks like Tesla and NVIDIA and others,” he said.
“It is a speculative asset like any other stock, the value can go up and does go down and there is no guarantee it is preserving its value.”
Antweiler added bringing Bitcoin onto the city’s ledger sheet would likely require provincial legislative changes. The Vancouver Charter and Community Charter, which govern how B.C.’s cities operate, include specific language about how municipalities
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