Vancouver mayor presents plan to make city ‘Bitcoin-friendly’

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Mayor Ken Sim intends to make Vancouver a “Bitcoin-friendly city” in a motion set to be introduced in early December.

In a recent city council meeting, Sim revealed that on December 11, he would introduce a new motion titled “Preserving of the city’s purchasing power through diversification of financial resources: Becoming a Bitcoin-friendly city.”

He didn’t reveal any details about what the motion proposes and has not responded to any media questions. However, local experts believe the mayor wants to channel some of the state’s funds into purchasing BTC as a reserve asset.

This would align with similar proposals made by United States President Donald Trump on the campaign trail to invest billions in BTC as a national reserve asset. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) has confirmed that she intends to introduce the BITCOIN Act as soon as Trump assumes office, which would allow the U.S. government to hold BTC.

In Pennsylvania, a state representative recently introduced a similar bill that allows the state to hold BTC as a strategic reserve asset.

In South America, a Brazilian legislator recently introduced a new legislation that seeks to allocate 5% of the country’s international reserves to digital assets, taking a cue from the United States.

Beyond reserve asset status, some say Mayor Sim could allow some city hall payments to be made in BTC. Vancouver wouldn’t be the first city in Canada to accept BTC payments. However, all the other local governments only accept BTC on paper; essentially, the payment processor converts the BTC immediately to Canadian dollars, and the city never touches it.

As a digital currency, BTC is fundamentally flawed. Its costs have remained prohibitive, and its settlement time is slow, making it impractical for day-to-day payments.

Only a blockchain that scales unboundedly like BSV can deliver Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision of Bitcoin, which was for a “purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash.” Bitcoin is already the fastest blockchain globally, and with the upcoming Teranode upgrade, it will process over a million transactions per second (TPS), making it the only enterprise-ready network in the world.

Watch: Unpacking Bitcoin sustainability at the London Blockchain Conference 2024