Brandon DonnellyCanada must become a global superpower
The silver lining to the US starting a trade war with Canada and regularly threatening annexation is that it has forced this country out of complacency. Indeed, I'm hard pressed to remember a time, at least in my lifetime, when patriotism and nationalism has united so much of Canada. According to a recent survey by Angus Reid, the percentage of Canadians expressing a "deep emotional attachment" to the country jumped from 49% in December 2024 to 59% in February 2025. And as further evidence of...
Brandon DonnellyThe bank robbery capital of the world
Between 1985 and 1995, Los Angeles' retail bank branches were robbed some 17,106 times. In 1992, which was the the city's worst year for robberies, the number was 2,641. This roughly translated into about one bank robbery every 45 minutes of each banking day. All of this, according to this CrimeReads piece by Peter Houlahan, gave Los Angeles the dubious title of "The Bank Robbery Capital of the World" during this time period. So what caused this? Well according to Peter it was facil...
Brandon DonnellyThe story behind those pixelated video game mosaics in Paris
If you've ever been to Paris, you've probably noticed the small pixelated art pieces that are scattered all around the city on buildings and various other hard surfaces. Or maybe you haven't seen or noticed them in Paris, but you've seen similarly pixelated mosaics in one of the other 79 cities around the world where they can be found. Or maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about right now. Huh? Here's an example from Bolivia (click here if you can't see...
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Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly.
Subscribe to Brandon Donnelly
Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly.
Brandon DonnellyCanada must become a global superpower
The silver lining to the US starting a trade war with Canada and regularly threatening annexation is that it has forced this country out of complacency. Indeed, I'm hard pressed to remember a time, at least in my lifetime, when patriotism and nationalism has united so much of Canada. According to a recent survey by Angus Reid, the percentage of Canadians expressing a "deep emotional attachment" to the country jumped from 49% in December 2024 to 59% in February 2025. And as further evidence of...
Brandon DonnellyThe bank robbery capital of the world
Between 1985 and 1995, Los Angeles' retail bank branches were robbed some 17,106 times. In 1992, which was the the city's worst year for robberies, the number was 2,641. This roughly translated into about one bank robbery every 45 minutes of each banking day. All of this, according to this CrimeReads piece by Peter Houlahan, gave Los Angeles the dubious title of "The Bank Robbery Capital of the World" during this time period. So what caused this? Well according to Peter it was facil...
Brandon DonnellyThe story behind those pixelated video game mosaics in Paris
If you've ever been to Paris, you've probably noticed the small pixelated art pieces that are scattered all around the city on buildings and various other hard surfaces. Or maybe you haven't seen or noticed them in Paris, but you've seen similarly pixelated mosaics in one of the other 79 cities around the world where they can be found. Or maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about right now. Huh? Here's an example from Bolivia (click here if you can't see...
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Brandon DonnellyStand with crypto
Support Brandon Donnelly
Brandon DonnellyStand with crypto
If you're looking for strong evidence that crypto is entering the mainstream, here it is:
The cryptocurrency and banking industries are locked in a lobbying battle over digital tokens that yield annual payouts, a fight that threatens to derail legislation intended to bring crypto into mainstream finance.
The two sides are clashing about what crypto firms call rewards, or annual payments to investors based on a percentage of their total holdings. They are commonly used for stablecoins, popular tokens typically pegged to the U.S. dollar and used for trading, overseas payments and money transfers.
To banks, rewards on stablecoins from companies such as Coinbase Global that pay out 3.5% resemble high-yielding deposits—but without the regulations they face for holding customers’ cash. Bank-industry groups have flooded lawmakers with letters and phone calls arguing the rewards would decimate Main Street lenders. The national average interest rate for a standard interest-bearing checking account is below 0.1%.
Whenever incumbents start panicking, you know change is happening. It happened with Uber fairly recently, and now it's happening with crypto. This change involves, among many other things, the tokenization of real-world assets and the integration of crypto within the global financial system. But clearly, it's not going to be a simple transition.
If you are a Canadian who believes that Canada should be doing more to position itself as a global leader in blockchain (and that it needs effective stablecoin regulations), I would encourage you to check out Stand with Crypto, a non-profit advocacy group primarily founded and backed by Coinbase.
The site allows you to quickly email your Member of Parliament and see which politicians are pro- or anti-crypto. I just joined, and my riding is currently 86th in terms of the number of advocates. Number one is Burnaby Central. There's a lot of work to be done to get these numbers up. A thriving blockchain ecosystem is an opportunity to drive economic growth in this country at a time when it is badly needed.
Cover photo by Francisco Delgado on Unsplash
If you're looking for strong evidence that crypto is entering the mainstream, here it is:
The cryptocurrency and banking industries are locked in a lobbying battle over digital tokens that yield annual payouts, a fight that threatens to derail legislation intended to bring crypto into mainstream finance.
The two sides are clashing about what crypto firms call rewards, or annual payments to investors based on a percentage of their total holdings. They are commonly used for stablecoins, popular tokens typically pegged to the U.S. dollar and used for trading, overseas payments and money transfers.
To banks, rewards on stablecoins from companies such as Coinbase Global that pay out 3.5% resemble high-yielding deposits—but without the regulations they face for holding customers’ cash. Bank-industry groups have flooded lawmakers with letters and phone calls arguing the rewards would decimate Main Street lenders. The national average interest rate for a standard interest-bearing checking account is below 0.1%.
Whenever incumbents start panicking, you know change is happening. It happened with Uber fairly recently, and now it's happening with crypto. This change involves, among many other things, the tokenization of real-world assets and the integration of crypto within the global financial system. But clearly, it's not going to be a simple transition.
If you are a Canadian who believes that Canada should be doing more to position itself as a global leader in blockchain (and that it needs effective stablecoin regulations), I would encourage you to check out Stand with Crypto, a non-profit advocacy group primarily founded and backed by Coinbase.
The site allows you to quickly email your Member of Parliament and see which politicians are pro- or anti-crypto. I just joined, and my riding is currently 86th in terms of the number of advocates. Number one is Burnaby Central. There's a lot of work to be done to get these numbers up. A thriving blockchain ecosystem is an opportunity to drive economic growth in this country at a time when it is badly needed.
Cover photo by Francisco Delgado on Unsplash
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