Swiss city moves to go fully on crypto
Residents of Lugano will be able to pay for parking, taxes, public services, retail purchases and even tuition with Bitcoin, Tether or its own cryptocurrency.
Lugano, the economic capital of southern Switzerland, aims to become Europe’s Bitcoin and crypto capital after partnering with Tether. Once integrated, it will make Tether (USDT), Bitcoin (BTC) and Lugano’s LVGA token legal tender in the city, with more than 200 shops and businesses in the area expected to accept crypto payments.
For Bitcoin payments, Lugano will use Lightning Network, which is the second layer of Bitcoin that makes transactions faster and cheaper. Polygon will also act as an infrastructure partner for stablecoin settlements in the city.
To encourage adoption for shops and businesses across the city, Tether has set up a 3-million Swiss franc fund in collaboration with Lugano officials. All this can positively affect overall crypto adoption and growth.
And it paves the way for a time when crypto can be used just like cash.
Several reasons why Lugano is adopting crypto
Aside from giving more use cases to these coins, the project aims to:
- Attract talent to the city and turn it into a blockchain hub. Tether pledged to create a fund of up to 100 million Swiss francs to finance blockchain startups.
- Demonstrate real-world use of blockchain technologies. Most blockchain projects until now were focused on foundational efforts that failed to deliver practical applications.
- Reduce infrastructure costs and expand access to global markets.
- Focus on using environmentally friendly alternatives to power Bitcoin mining and accelerate renewable energy development.
Future goals
Once the infrastructure is set, Lugano will enable its citizens and companies to fully pay their annual taxes and to pay for all goods and services in crypto. Once paid, crypto will be converted in the local fiat currency via service providers.
Growing adoption positive news for crypto
Lugano joins governments and entities that have already accepted cryptocurrencies as legal tender for specific uses. Other Swiss cities already accept crypto for tax payments, for example. This mirrors El Salvador’s goal of having Bitcoin accepted for any transaction.
This should positively affect all cryptocurrencies as it gives more use cases, wider adoption and makes crypto payments safer.
Interested in cryptocurrency? Learn more about the basics with our beginner’s guide to Bitcoin, dive deeper by learning about Ethereum and see what blockchain can do with our simple guide to DeFi.
Kliment Dukovski owns Bitcoin as of the publishing date.
Paid non-client promotion. Finder does not invest money with providers on this page. If a brand is a referral partner, we're paid when you click or tap through to, open an account with or provide your contact information to the provider. Partnerships are not a recommendation for you to invest with any one company. Learn more about how we make money.
Finder is not an adviser or brokerage service. Information on this page is for educational purposes only and not a recommendation to invest with any one company, trade specific stocks or fund specific investments. All editorial opinions are our own.
