Vancouver council passes mayor’s motion to make city ‘bitcoin-friendly’
Vancouver councillors passed a motion from Mayor Ken Sim on Wednesday that seeks to make the city “bitcoin-friendly,” giving staff the thumbs up to explore holding cryptocurrency in reserve and accepting payments in the virtual currency.
Sim, who’s an investor in a cryptocurrency exchange, said he believes investing in bitcoin is the financially responsible thing to do in an age of inflation and market volatility, and even said he would donate $10,000 worth of bitcoins personally to the city.
City staff will now have to research if the city could integrate bitcoin into its financial strategies and whether the city could invest in cryptocurrency by converting “a portion” of Vancouver’s financial reserves.
“It would be irresponsible for the City of Vancouver to not look at the merits of adding bitcoin to the city’s strategic assets to preserve the city’s financial stability,” Sim’s motion reads.
The City of Vancouver could soon take a major leap into the world of cryptocurrency. Mayor Ken Sim is introducing a motion to explore making Vancouver a bitcoin-friendly city. But some experts say the move could be risky.
The mayor holds an investment in cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc., according to his 2024 financial disclosure. The company offers a platform through which bitcoin can be traded.
The mayor says he consulted with the city’s auditor general before proposing his motion.
On Wednesday, more than a dozen speakers spoke in favour of the idea, including Victoria Lemieux, head of the Blockchain@UBC research cluster.
“Paying for city services and infrastructure by, surprisingly, mining bitcoin sounds like it would use up a lot of energy,” she told Stephen Quinn, host of CBC’s The Early Edition.
“But there are green efforts afoot in the bitcoin mining sector, and I think we could definitely look at those and how they might benefit paying for things like heating city pools and other sorts of services.”
Mayor Ken Sim’s proposal to make Vancouver a “bitcoin-friendly” city could result in new areas of economic growth like bitcoin mining, say UBC professor Victoria Lemieux, head of the Blockchain@UBC research cluster, and Jesse McKee, head of digital strategy at the 2-21-A art and design hub.
But some experts have expressed skepticism over the environmental upsides of cryptocurrency mining, as well as raised concerns that cryptocurrency’s volatility means it is unsuitable for use in a city’s financial reserves.
The environmental impact of bitcoin mining largely boils down to the energy source used in the process. Industry analysts have maintained that clean energy has increased in use in recent years, as concern has grown over the amount of power it requires.
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