Mayor pitches making Vancouver a Bitcoin-friendly city – BC [Video]

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 …