Cryptocurrency was never meant to go into ashes without targeting the current financial industry and ecosystem. The world believes in this transition, and cryptocurrency supposedly aims to provide a new direction for managing virtual assets on a worldwide platform. The question that arose in Bitcoin’s and crypto’s future was its authoritative adoption. Although we have been seeing multiple companies taking the initiative of adopting this digital innovation, there was not much progress until El Salvador came up with the idea of accepting Bitcoin as its legal tender.
The Official Announcement
Lugano, a city in Switzerland known for its wealth, announced its partnership with Tether, a stablecoin issuer, to establish Bitcoin as their legal tender in the city. The Decision was announced in the early days of March, and its final end is to accept crypto payments for all goods and services in the city. To make this possible on an urban scale and ready to be used for everyday transactions, the plan is to implement the lightning network. Although the project has some pending formal approvals and infrastructure improvements, the direction is clear.
Lugano’s Mayor, Mr Michele Foletti, stated that “Lugano is investing in its future. In recent years, we have already implemented blockchain-based solutions including the MyLugano app and its LVGA Points payment token, the Lugano digital franc, and the 3Achain blockchain infrastructure.”
Even though some Swiss cities are known for accepting crypto for tax payments, this move by Lugano is aimed to go far beyond, and will surely bring a positive impact on the future of cryptocurrency. The southern financial hub brought this overwhelming news to the market to become Europe’s Bitcoin capital. Actually, Zug was the first city to move towards crypto acceptance in 2016, with Bitcoin and Ethereum being accepted to pay taxes to the Zug canton. Zermatt Swiss municipality is also accepting it for their taxes since January 2020. With cities like this taking such initiatives, it surely depicts that Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are the future of the financial ecosystem.
How Will It Be Used?
The announcement of the legal tender included other digital assets as well. The stablecoin Tether, and Lugano’s personal stablecoin, LVGA, were also recognized as legal tender in the city. This announcement had some strong implications on the city’s operations. Citizens and companies had the opportunity to pay their annual taxes, parking tickets, public services, sewage, other service taxes, tuition and event taxes, etc. The wide-scale adoption of cryptocurrency for covering everyday transactions was a fair move by Lugano, which showed the intent of allowing digital assets to take a governmental-scale action in making a change in the lives of their people.
The Reaction of The People
Bitcoin as a legal tender announcement was an encouraging move, personally announced by the city mayor, Tether CTO, and city director. This was proficiently welcomed by the community. It has been mentioned that 200+ companies and businesses will accept Bitcoin, Tether, and LVGA to purchase their services and commodities.
Taking This Further
To make this happen, Polygon has proposed itself as their infrastructure partner by providing their blockchain platform for operating and trading stablecoins. The inclusion of stakeholders from both sides of the picture is highly encouraging for the digital community. Following this, the city of Lugano would be creating a specialized hub with a funding of 100 Million Swiss Francs for financing blockchain-based projects. Lugano would be overseeing the adoption of cryptocurrency across local businesses with a 3 Million Swiss Francs funding in its hand.
The initiative of taking cryptocurrency to governmental levels will be extremely befitting for the digital ecosystem. Where countries have been fighting over the regulatory clauses of cryptocurrency, such examples will set up the direction for guiding bigger and stronger countries to change the dynamics of the financial industry.