Lugano, Switzerland, has gotten the stage ready to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender in the state and hence allow citizens to pay for public service fees or taxes in bitcoin. This development was made known by city director Pietro Poretti who co-announced in an event live-streamed on Thursday alongside mayor Michele Foletti and CTO of Tether Paolo Arduino. The city has already worked with over 200 merchants to propel the adoption of bitcoin and Lightning payments.
Presently, Lugano, Switzerland, is working closely with Tether Operations Limited and is committed to Building a Center of Excellence for Blockchain Adoption in Europe.
Arduino has described this as the essential part of this project. In his words, the “Plan ₿,” a city initiative being sketched and collaborated with Tether to attract wealth, intelligent minds, and opportunities. Tether’s stablecoin USDT will soon become a legal tender in the city.
This collaboration with the Blockchain experts seeks to drive the city to a wide-scale Blockchain adoption and allow Citizens to Pay Annual Taxes and City Services in Bitcoin, Tether, and Selected CHF-Based stablecoins.
Furthermore, Poretti stated that Plan ₿ also created two investment funds. The first will allocate up to $3.26 million to foster the adoption of bitcoin, USDT, and LVGA, the city’s stablecoin worth one-hundredth of a Swiss franc which will also be legal tender in Lugano. The second represents the formation of a pool of funds of up to $108.6 million for Bitcoin cryptocurrency and blockchain startups that wish to relocate and set up their headquarters in the city and bring personnel to the Switzerland town.
Tether Operations Limited (Tether), the technology company supporting the blockchain-enabled platform that powers the largest stablecoin by market capitalization (USD₮), in collaboration with the vibrant Swiss city of Lugano, has on Thursday announced the establishment of a center of excellence for blockchain adoption in Europe.
Therefore, it is expected that the Tether company and the City of Lugano will work toward the shared goal of scaling the city’s blockchain capabilities and promoting Lugano as a central hub for European blockchain adoption.
Remarkably, Lugano is home to world-class research institutes and infrastructure, including the Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence (IDSIA) and the Swiss National Supercomputing Center (CSCS).
The city has been home to several innovative initiatives, including the Lugano Living Lab, which implements projects in the innovation and digital fields through experimentation and prototyping on an urban scale. Lugano’s ecosystem allows Tether to stretch beyond most current blockchain implementations and work hand-in-hand with Lugano for the first full-scale urban practical use case. The application in Lugano will be exhibited through localized services with tailored use cases that can reduce infrastructure costs and expand access to global markets.
Finally, Lugano will also ‘roll the red carpet for Bitcoin and blockchain businesses and enthusiasts to relocate to the city. It is hoped that the date for the official adoption will be made known soon.
