Swiss City of Lugano to Make Bitcoin Legal Tender

[stompix]

Take the title with a grain or two of salt

Source :
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/03/03/swiss-city-of-lugano-to-make-bitcoin-and-tether-de-facto-legal-tender/
and..
https://cointelegraph.com/news/swiss-city-of-lugano-to-pay-taxes-in-crypto-via-tether-partnership

The title of the original piece of news is a bit worse than mine for a bitcoin maximalist:

Swiss City of Lugano to Make Bitcoin and Tether 'De Facto' Legal Tender
It includes tether and it says "de facto" which means it will work like but without a legal base, which would be "de jure".

The second article claims that is only for tax purposes with further aim at actually becoming full-fledged legal tender:

The city of Lugano, the economic capital of Italian-speaking southern Switzerland, is adopting cryptocurrencies for tax payments as part of a new collaboration with the provider of the Tether (USDT) stable coin.
Lugano aims to scale its efforts to enable citizens and companies to pay their taxes in cryptocurrency in the near future, pending several formal approvals and infrastructure projects. The ultimate goal is to accept crypto for payment of all goods and services, equating it with a fiat currency, the announcement notes.

Of course, it's still one huge step forward but probably we'll have to wait for the enthusiasm to clear and see what's the real deal when it comes to the actual laws that will be signed on paper. As for the impact, I would have thought that this will be the piece of news that will propel us to over 50k but, again, that's why I don't daily trade, we're going down 4%

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[kryptqnick]

If it's true that it will be legal tender for tax purposes, it's very good news because that means that there will only be taxes on profits from it (and perhaps other taxes, but only whatever applies to fiat in Switzerland, so not taxation of transactions, for sure). While it's generally worse than a formal declaration of Bitcoin as legal tender, it's a significant step towards adoption, and it can encourage the usage of Bitcoin specifically as money, not as a form of investment. But in terms of the impact on the price, I don't think there will be any or would have been if the title were accurate.

[Upgrade00]

Switzerland is a high ranked economy by GDP, and one of its city's being linked to bitcoin is a huge step in the direction of adoption.

This sort of news reinforces bitcoins utility as a currency and store of value and even though it may not have significant impact on the market value, it very well could impact how institutions and government see it, triggering more adoption.

[BIT-BENDER]

I think many people are getting drawn into crypto-currency right now and I think more would get into it the more, lugano has made a wise choice one that would help their country in so many ways. Regardless I think this clash between Russia and Ukraine has also shown the strength of crypto-currency in times like This, you can have several government with their currency by crypto-currency is one with no government and builds a bridge between both countries, if any government aren't seeing the potentials of crypto right now then it's funny.

[aoluain]

Yes thats how I read it too, first they propose to use is for tax purposes but there
is a clear willingness to adopt it fully as legal tender.

Its strange to me though that it is only a city and not the whole country, they must
be able to do that or else they wouldnt start the procedure of implementing it.

Also to note while Switzerland is in Europe it is not part of the EUROzone, just in case
some people start thinking this is going to be an EU thing.

Good news nonetheless.

[pealr12]

Taken with a pinch of salt,  but excited about the news, more publicity for btc, using it for tax or legal tender all point to one simple fact, btc recognition.  Although am struggling to fully understand how they intend to use it for tax purposes, does that mean that taxpayers will have the option to pay with btc or how it will be done?

[LeGaulois]

Guys, you forget to consider something, the article is about a city, not the whole country.
And as the article reminds us, there are already other cities in the country where citizens can pay their taxes with bitcoin. So this is not really exceptional news. Just one more city.

Since 2 years about, Switzerland has adjusted a number of its commercial and financial laws to give businesses a legal framework.
There was even a company that advertised BTC on buses or tramways. Old news, Payment service provider Worldline now allows its 85,000 corporate customers to accept purchases in bitcoin or ether (the crypto-currency of the Ethereum blockchain). That doesn't mean there are 85,000 busonesses using it, but there is nothing stopping them.

I don't expect such news to have an impact on the price

There is no tax on transactions in Switzerland. There are taxes on profits but like in every market and like in most countries.

it can encourage the usage of Bitcoin specifically as money, not as a form of investment

it's to pay the taxes, not to go to the supermarket

[nullama]

Switzerland is a high ranked economy by GDP, and one of its city's being linked to bitcoin is a huge step in the direction of adoption.

This sort of news reinforces bitcoins utility as a currency and store of value and even though it may not have significant impact on the market value, it very well could impact how institutions and government see it, triggering more adoption.

The canton of Zug in Switzerland allows their citizens to pay their taxes with Bitcoin since 2021

Here's one of many sources.

Switzerland is probably already one of the most Bitcoin friendly places on earth, they're trying to create a "crypto valley" there.

[bitbollo]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-swiss-rail-bitcoin-idUSKCN12S1KR

Switzerland rail company allow to buy bitcoin from their vending machine... since 2016!
it's like 1000 bitcoin atm on the same country, the biggest number we have seen so far.
They are a pretty famous as crypto friendly country and Lugano city has just made another step on a mass adoption. Well done Let's see the next step!

[countryfree]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-swiss-rail-bitcoin-idUSKCN12S1KR

Switzerland rail company allow to buy bitcoin from their vending machine... since 2016!
it's like 1000 bitcoin atm on the same country, the biggest number we have seen so far.
They are a pretty famous as crypto friendly country and Lugano city has just made another step on a mass adoption. Well done Let's see the next step!

A very bad deal, actually. Fee is outrageous. It may be 20% if my memories are correct.

Back to the subject, I'm not sure it's possible, because Lugano is only a city. Zug is different, because it's a canton (a bit like a county in the US).

[Wind_FURY]

Switzerland is a high ranked economy by GDP, and one of its city's being linked to bitcoin is a huge step in the direction of adoption.

This sort of news reinforces bitcoins utility as a currency and store of value and even though it may not have significant impact on the market value, it very well could impact how institutions and government see it, triggering more adoption.

Bitcoin's "utility" as a currency remains very limited, we should be honest. Although there's the Lightning Network, there's very low support from exchanges and Bitcoin merchants/services.

I believe Bitcoin is on its path to another phase, a more important phase. It will be a discovery of its real nature of weakening socio-political, and financial strongholds established by the legacy banking system and big goverment.

[Poker Player]

Guys, you forget to consider something, the article is about a city, not the whole country.
And as the article reminds us, there are already other cities in the country where citizens can pay their taxes with bitcoin. So this is not really exceptional news. Just one more city.

Yes well, in my case it's not that I'm ecstatic about the news but we have a trickle of news like this in the right direction, which makes me think that we are like in the period 1996-2000 in the use of the Internet. It seems that this is going to continue little by little but steadily and that we are moving towards a massive adoption and use.

[pooya87]

It is not only weird but also stupid to even consider Tether safe as a regular user, let alone make it legal tender at a city or country level. We all know that Tether is a highly risky altcoin and worst of all it is centralized and the central authority controlling it is not some regular developer group, it is a very shady company that has been under multiple investigations by authorities that could (I believe it definitely will) lead to shutting down the company and death of Tether.

[YouYou0321]

This is really a feeling of concealment. If Switzerland is an entire country accepting bitcoin payments, then the current impact should be global, and now it is only a city. If the mayor of this city steps down, does it mean that the news announced will not be Does it count?

[valentine wheeler]

Suddenly I don't want to watch Switzerland's next performance, I feel so sad.
When Switzerland chose not to be neutral, the centralized financial system collapsed

[TheNineClub]

Take the title with a grain or two of salt

Source :
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/03/03/swiss-city-of-lugano-to-make-bitcoin-and-tether-de-facto-legal-tender/
and..
https://cointelegraph.com/news/swiss-city-of-lugano-to-pay-taxes-in-crypto-via-tether-partnership

The title of the original piece of news is a bit worse than mine for a bitcoin maximalist:

Swiss City of Lugano to Make Bitcoin and Tether 'De Facto' Legal Tender
It includes tether and it says "de facto" which means it will work like but without a legal base, which would be "de jure".

The second article claims that is only for tax purposes with further aim at actually becoming full-fledged legal tender:

The city of Lugano, the economic capital of Italian-speaking southern Switzerland, is adopting cryptocurrencies for tax payments as part of a new collaboration with the provider of the Tether (USDT) stable coin.
Lugano aims to scale its efforts to enable citizens and companies to pay their taxes in cryptocurrency in the near future, pending several formal approvals and infrastructure projects. The ultimate goal is to accept crypto for payment of all goods and services, equating it with a fiat currency, the announcement notes.

Of course, it's still one huge step forward but probably we'll have to wait for the enthusiasm to clear and see what's the real deal when it comes to the actual laws that will be signed on paper. As for the impact, I would have thought that this will be the piece of news that will propel us to over 50k but, again, that's why I don't daily trade, we're going down 4%

The Swiss have always been ahead of the financial game in Europe, so if this really goes through it would be a good step forward. And I would argue that Switzerland has much more leverage in it's financial decisions than some bigger European players in a sense that this could prompt other Europe economis to reconsider it's views on crypto.

[bitbollo]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-swiss-rail-bitcoin-idUSKCN12S1KR

Switzerland rail company allow to buy bitcoin from their vending machine... since 2016!
it's like 1000 bitcoin atm on the same country, the biggest number we have seen so far.
They are a pretty famous as crypto friendly country and Lugano city has just made another step on a mass adoption. Well done Let's see the next step!

A very bad deal, actually. Fee is outrageous. It may be 20% if my memories are correct.
....

I didn't know about such high fees, but are you sure? Out of 500 francs ... do they charge 100 francs in commissions?
When the service was launched, the news was taken with great enthusiasm because it was not so easy to buy bitcoin with cash and the services, at least in Europe, could be counted on the fingers of one hand ...

Even in that case with Lugano city, at least in Italy, we have appreciated with the same enthusiasm this news, because is a sign of innovation and open-mindedness by this country.
In Italy we have a bank that allow to exchange bitcoin but we don't have such regulations/positive attitude towards bitcoin...during government meetings they talked about bitcoin in an unscrupulous way as if they really don't even know the minimum basics...

[DdmrDdmr]

I would water down the media excitement after reading some pointers to the scope of the news. Despite the small Swizz city of Lugano being on the road to accepting bitcoin for payments of goods, services and tax, it does not seem to be as shinny as the headlines are pointing out.

A couple of things I’ve read on the matter, point to it bearing a rather delimited scope, and seemingly not native, but rather using a third party provider to service conversions to fiat (reading the article, it evens seems like a mandatory conversion, although I’m not 100% sure on that).

From the first below referenced link:
 

When citizens use crypto assets as a currency, the funds will be converted into local fiat via a third party intermediary.

From the second below referenced link:

More than 200 shops and businesses in the area are also expected to accept crypto payments for goods and services.

It reminds me more of the way some stores in certain towns/cities accept a local token for payments, than a concept of legal tender by far.

Ver:
https://cryptobriefing.com/lugano-introduces-bitcoin-tether-lvga-legal-tender/
https://blockzeit.com/the-switzerland-city-of-lugano-recognizes-bitcoin-and-tether-as-de-facto-legal-tender/

[Daltonik]

By the way, here you can watch the recording of the broadcast of the Lugano's Plan BTC conference in English, at which a cooperation agreement was signed between the mayor of Lugano Michele Foletti and CTO Tether Paolo Ardoino, also at the end it is mentioned about a store located not far from the conference venue where you can buy things for bitcoin or LVGA token, but it is rather of such an advertising nature.

English ver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zfh-oOlt03I
Italian  ver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaMSkwNdPfM

[stompix]

Guys, you forget to consider something, the article is about a city, not the whole country.
And as the article reminds us, there are already other cities in the country where citizens can pay their taxes with bitcoin. So this is not really exceptional news. Just one more city.

I would water down the media excitement after reading some pointers to the scope of the news.

I knew from the start it wasn't as good as advertised.
But!, although I don't like opening topics about small things when 90%of the economic and speculation and bd boards are about Russia and sactions, 9% about Bukele's meme I desperately felt the need for something else!

Yeah, it's just a city, not even the biggest, it also accepts tether, reading the list of poeple involved I assume a lot of money was spent for this for a PR move or more a publicity stunt but it's still something nice to have and it's something else than the mainstream subjects now.
As I said, the impact was not what I was expected, I hoped it will keep the FOMO rocket going but in the end, it is what it is.

Oh, and of course, in order for this to be a leading example, poeple would have to actually use bitcoin for payments there, if other cities see that despite the legislation and favorable conditions nobody is doing they will see no reason to jump onboard.