Vancouver’s Mayor, Ken SimIt is not a fake Bitcoin enthusiast who’s doing his part to get Vancouver’s city council as well as its citizens to see what he sees when it comes to Bitcoin.
And His efforts are beginning to pay off.
On December The year 2024 is 11. Vancouver City Council Greenlit motion Mayor Sim Prepare to begin making Vancouver More Bitcoin-friendly city.
The Motion directs the city staff to investigate ideas Vancouver Accepting taxes and fees from cities in bitcoin as well as establishing a bitcoin strategic reserve.
In My conversation with Mayor SimWe talked about the motion’s passage as well as his more philosophical ideas. Bitcoin.
We Also touched upon what Bitcoin adoption in Vancouver In a perfect universe, what would his journey look like? Bitcoin Rabbit hole and Why Bitcoin Can bring hope for financial prosperity to citizens Vancouver At a time when so many people are having trouble making ends meet, this is a good thing.
The Vancouver City Council Recent passed motions to make Vancouver More Bitcoin-friendly city.
On On a more personal level, however, it would be great if someone could simply wave their magic wand to enable the desired level. Bitcoin You can adopt as you please VancouverHow would you describe that?
I've got to give you a caveat here. These My personal thoughts. We Have a pretty amazing team at the City You can also find out more about the following: Vancouver, and they've been tasked to explore. So, it's not as if I can really influence the team and tell them “You have to do this and that.”
In In a perfect universe, we’d add more to our strategic reserve. The The second would be to allow people to conduct transactions with Bitcoin without having to pay capital gains tax and accept payment in bitcoin. Tax Regulation across is not only Canada, but in the U.S. and a lot of other jurisdictions, still hasn't caught up, so every time you transact with bitcoin, there’s a capital gains tax fee, which is very cumbersome.
The We need to open the dialogue and dispel the myths that surround narratives such as Bitcoin This is not good for the environment That's all hogwash, right? Bitcoin It is going to be a great help in saving the environment.
Plus, it provides us with an immutable record and it actually adds to a level of transparency we've never seen in the history of humankind. Having It would be wonderful if we could incorporate this into our system.
You The process of teaching people about Bitcoin On, Natalie Brunell’s show. You said you “shower them with love and then you hit them with facts.” Can What is an example of this?
There's a lot of resistance with BitcoinIt is important to consider the perceived environmental impact of. People hear this narrative that it's bad for the environment, and it's like, “Well, wait a second…”
I'm an environmentalist, and I know that if you force organizations across the planet to do stuff that they aren't incentivized to do, nothing's going to happen. Whereas if you incentivize them — if you build in a reward system — it’s amazing.
SoWhat is known? WellWhen we produce oil, natural gas is a byproduct. But if it can be captured and used for something else, why not? Bitcoin It is not bad for the environment to mine. Same Methane is captured from underground.
Also, with alternative or green energy sources, be it wind power or solar power, where the economics often don't pan out to build these projects, you provide someone with a guaranteed customer in the form of Bitcoin These things are built by miners and economics. So, it's net positive for the environment.
There’s also this false narrative that nefarious things happen with Bitcoin. That's garbage, right? Cash It is impossible to trace. With Bitcoin, we're talking about an immutable record where you can see every single transaction since the beginning of time and you can catch people at the on and off ramps.
Some We must counteract these narratives, as they are not true.
Based on my experience, it's easy to teach someone something, while it's a lot harder for people to unlearn, and we are in the process of helping people unlearn what they've learned.
You Have referred to Bitcoin As the greatest invention of human history. Could What more can you tell us about that?
Our money is broken. People can't use it to store their energy into the future. We're on this rinse and repeat cycle. In Ray Dalio's book The Changing World OrderHe talks about the rise of and the fall of the Dutch Empire, the Rise and Fall of the British He calls it the “rise and fall” of the U.S. imperium. If You agree to Dalio’s perspective, the point is that the money's broken.
We do not have a reserve currency that's ever lasted. We Keep repeating the past. But Bitcoin Changes all around As we all know, you can't mess with it, and you can't manipulate it. It's a game-changer and when we finally get onto the bitcoin standard — I think it's a matter of when, not if — it's going to change how humans interact with each other and how nation states evolve.
You Just cite one Ray Dalio’s books, You can also find out more about the following: I’ve heard you discuss how you’ve also read books like The Bitcoin Standard and Layered Money. You’re also a friend of Jeff Booth’s. With all the reading you’ve done and the conversations you’ve had with JeffDid you have a “lightbulb” moment? Bitcoin Or was there a learning curve?
WellMy son had a lightbulb-like moment. Mitchell came up to me and said “Dad, I want to buy bitcoin.” And I was like, “You touch that shit, and I'm going to punch you in the throat.” Obviously, I wasn’t going to do that.
ThenI began to see more and have conversations with Jeff. SoI did some research, attended several conferences and read many articles. My journey was very similar to a lot of other people’s. It was at first something I hated, then it warmed to me and I became an advocate.
I can't point to any one point where it was like, “Wow, there you go” and I went 180 degrees the other way. But I remember that I bought my first bitcoin for $500 on November The 14th of 2020. The The reason I took so long is that I had to figure out how to use an app where I purchased the bitcoin. It was all clunky — just a pain in the butt.
But I remember that day, because when I finally bought it I thought, “Did I miss out?” I think I bought it at like 16 or 17 grand and it had run from like seven or eight grand the month before. I was like, “Did I miss it?” I remember Jeff saying, “No, you’re still super early; we're all still super early.”
You’ve talked about how unaffordable housing in Vancouver is. Does How can bitcoin help?
Yes. Let Let me give you an instance. We Rent a studio in a nearby area. Whistler The town of Vancouver). When We bought it and it cost us 17.2 Bitcoin That's about four years ago. In terms of dollars, the property is up 36%, but in terms of bitcoin, it's down something like 85%. As Today, the cost of buying it is about 3.3 bitcoins.
By the way, I'm not giving investment advice. I'm just talking about a theoretical, if this plays out how it could. If at some point in the not so distant future, you'll be able to buy a house in Vancouver If you buy bitcoins today, you could literally purchase a home for US$106,000 (or about CA$150,000)
I'm not telling people to take out a loan to buy bitcoin — very far from it. Go seek financial advice. But if you believe bitcoin’s price will continue to appreciate, you can literally buy a house for CA$150,000 in the near future by buying a bitcoin right now.
You've brought BitcoinA taboo topic, brought into the fold Mayor You can also find out more about the following: Vancouver, and you’ve said that doing so might lead to your not getting re-elected. Have Have you considered the possibility that the reverse could be true? Bitcoin The people of Vancouver Will you want to be re-elected?
I'm not too concerned about that. It’s not something I want to do. I'm not a politician, even though I'm sitting in this role, which I really honor, value and take very seriously. But It was not the intention to become popular. The The goal of the campaign was to never be re-elected. The My goal was to act in the best interests of my future. City You can also find out more about the following: Vancouver.
And so I couldn't sit back any longer and ignore this because I truly believe that this sets the city up for the next hundred years. Am What do you think? We don't know, but we have a pretty good feeling, and I truly believe in it.
I think voters, residents — it doesn't matter what side of the political spectrum you sit on — are sick of politicians who do stuff just to get re-elected. They Want people to believe in what is right. I think this is the right thing. If we don't get re-elected because of it, I can personally hold my head up high and say, “You Know what? We stuck to our values and we did what's right.” If If it all works out well, that’s great. I actually think it's going to work out, though.
It It seems that a city as progressive like Vancouver — the first city in Canada To have a Bitcoin ATM — should be in favor of Bitcoin. HoweverThe former mayor banned Bitcoin There are ATMs throughout the city. Was Is there any reaction? Vancouver What was the reaction of your community to this mayor?
I didn't follow it too closely at the time, so I don't know. I can't comment on it. What It is true that many politicians make their decisions on the basis of virtue signaling rather than data. We're a data driven administration, and we care about the future prosperity of our city.
I think the distinction here is we choose to have the most impact — we're more concerned about the steak than the sizzle. If someone can make an argument on why this is a bad idea based on data, we'll listen to it. We No one can attack us. Bitcoin Data with stance
Bitcoin Technically, it can be difficult to use. So, let's say, in a perfect world, maybe Bitcoin Legal tender is a currency that can be used in Vancouver at some point, or if You can also find out more about the following:re's just greater adoption of it, do you worry about the technical difficulties associated with using Bitcoin? Would the Vancouver City governments are now involved in the education of its residents. Vancouver Residents of the area Bitcoin?
It's not one of the core services we provide as a city, so I don't see us going down the educational rabbit hole. We'll leave it up to other experts.
If Industry makes Bitcoin Simpler to use means more people and groups will jump aboard. And you know it's coming because there are a lot of people working on this right now.
I'm not an expert, but when I, when I hear about some of the things that are happening on Layer The 2s Lightning NetworkI can see an era where everything is seamlessly integrated. When people go into a Walgreens and they buy a candy bar, they won’t think about how they're paying with Bitcoin. All the plumbing underneath will happen without them knowing, and it's going to revolutionize the planet.
You've done a handful of interviews on this topic thus far. Is there anything that we in the media haven’t asked you yet that you’d like to discuss or point out?
Yes, I’d like to make a general call out and not just for the city of Vancouver. It's for every single city and province and state and jurisdiction and canton, and country on the planet.
We We still have a big challenge to overcome in spreading the message. Some people in the media have made the comment that what we're doing right now is more virtue signaling, because we have the hope of making this happen. This This is wrong, but.
We You can also use Bitcoin Start telling the truth about why bitcoins are a solid financial asset. It's the best performing asset in the last 16 years on the planet. And we're not traders, so if you're not looking to day trade, all of the volatility doesn't matter.
We Need to get that story out. But not me. We need to let our elected officials know this because they're not going to do anything until people hit them with data and tell our politicians that they want this.
We're doing this because we believe in it. We Get ahead of the game. We want to set up the city for the next 100 years, and that's why we're willing to take political risk to do this. But Need help? SoIf your audience could help us promote this narrative to our province government, and also in other jurisdictions as well, it would be wonderful.
If Do you believe that people will come aboard and learn how Bitcoin can help them reduce their financial stress? Vancouver transforms into a pro-Bitcoin City relatively quickly
Yes.
I go back to my sister-in-law, who if she watches the video she's gonna punch me in the face. About Thirteen years ago she feared getting an iPhone. She didn't understand the technology. It There was an emotional block.
ThenBecause all of her friends had iPhones, she joined the group. It's ridiculous now to think that people were afraid of iPhones, right?
Will Bitcoin Give us Hope Absolutely.
Then I will go to the City You can also find out more about the following: Vancouver This is why it’s so important. The City You can also find out more about the following: Vancouver The same as anyone else, we all exist in similar conditions. While people can't afford a home or they're struggling with groceries, we have a budget.
We have to hire police officers, firefighters, engineers, and we're living in an environment where our currency is getting debased and we can't increase taxes at a rate that keeps up with that. We don't want to cut services, and so Bitcoin Our balance sheet can help us to improve our financial situation.
And This will help us to run the city for another 100 years. When people grasp the concept, they will be able to make better decisions. Bitcoin Many will be encouraged to do so, realizing that they have greater purchasing power.
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