Vancouver hosts a massive mural in honor of Polkadot, and entire city blocks here are heated with Bitcoin mining. The site of the first Bitcoin ATM, the city has also hosted a blockchain wedding overseen by a “Doge Preacher.” Home to Dapper Labs and other blockchain projects, there is also a share of mystery, like the crypto exchange CEO who allegedly died in India.
Fast facts
City: Vancouver
Country: Canada
Population: 2.64 million (Metropolitan Area)
Established: 1886
Languages: English and French
Overview
Situated on Canada’s west coast in the province of British Columbia, Vancouver makes up the country’s third-largest metropolitan area. Consistently rated among the world’s most livable cities, Vancouver is notable for its ethnic and linguistic diversity brought on by waves of immigration, and less than half the population speaks either of Canada’s official languages, English and French, as their first language. Nestled between mountains and the ocean and aiming to become the world’s greenest city under an urban planning philosophy called Vancouverism, it rates among the most expensive cities in the world in terms of housing.
Downtown Vancouver is surrounded by water, so land is scarce. (Source: Pexels)
Originally settled by indigenous peoples over 10,000 years ago, the modern city grew around a tavern on the edge of a sawmill built in 1867. Its prominence grew with the introduction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Very close to nature and various climates, it is a major tourist hub offering whale watching, skiing, old-growth forests and other outdoor activities. It is today a major port city and travel hub, serving as a gateway to the far east both via Vancouver International Airport and in terms of culture, with people of Chinese ethnicity alone making up 27% of the population. The city hosted the Winter Olympics in 2010 and is sometimes called “Hollywood North” due to its notable film industry.
Compared to the more business-like Toronto, which is a 4.5-hour flight away, Vancouver takes after the United States west coast with a more casual atmosphere — perhaps helped by the far milder weather, which makes Eastern Canada with its freezing rain seem a world away. Despite its relatively small population of 38 million, Canada is an outsized contributor to the blockchain industry, perhaps most notably as the birthplace of Ethereum.
