Vancouver mayor defends bitcoin motion, says it’s better than gold [Video]

Vancouver city council has approved a motion brought by Mayor Ken Sim to make the city “bitcoin-friendly.” City staff will now investigate Sim’s idea of converting a portion of the city’s reserve funds to bitcoin, even though the province says it’s not allowed.

Speaking to Gloria Macarenko, the host of CBC’s On The Coast, Sim defended his position that holding bitcoin would be a smart move for Vancouver and Vancouverites. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Why should Vancouver become a bitcoin-friendly city?

There are a bunch of reasons, but I think the biggest one is we want to set the city up for the next 100 years … When you look at the inflationary pressures, when you look at the debasement to currencies across the planet, I think we’re going to be in a situation where we won’t be able to keep up our level of services at the City of Vancouver unless we increase taxes significantly in the future …