Swiss City of Lugano to Make Bitcoin Legal Tender

[Daltonik]

In any case, this somehow brings optimism to the process of blockchain integration, and now Polygon announces that it has been selected as the official blockchain platform of the Swiss city of Lugano, to help in the development of blockchain infrastructure.

Source: https://twitter.com/0xPolygon/status/1499493327502143488

[lornadane]

In any case, this somehow brings optimism to the process of blockchain integration, and now Polygon announces that it has been selected as the official blockchain platform of the Swiss city of Lugano, to help in the development of blockchain infrastructure.

Source: https://twitter.com/0xPolygon/status/1499493327502143488

Yes in the city of Lugano in southern Switzerland, many local businesses are planning to accept some cryptocurrencies as their "de facto" legal tender as part of a partnership with USDT.
So they don't just choose Polygons.
And they also said that the company had set aside 3 million Swiss francs.  Switzerland plans to work closely with Lugano officials to encourage the adoption of Bitcoin, USDT and LVGA tokens for shops and businesses across the city.

[tippytoes]

In any case, this somehow brings optimism to the process of blockchain integration, and now Polygon announces that it has been selected as the official blockchain platform of the Swiss city of Lugano, to help in the development of blockchain infrastructure.

Source: https://twitter.com/0xPolygon/status/1499493327502143488

Yes in the city of Lugano in southern Switzerland, many local businesses are planning to accept some cryptocurrencies as their "de facto" legal tender as part of a partnership with USDT.
So they don't just choose Polygons.
And they also said that the company had set aside 3 million Swiss francs.  Switzerland plans to work closely with Lugano officials to encourage the adoption of Bitcoin, USDT and LVGA tokens for shops and businesses across the city.

If they are successful in implementing this to their city, more than likely, other neighboring cities may probably follow. With small population, this will be easier to manage. And they can easily see how crypto will affect their financial system and the way of life of its people. So even if it is Polygon network, it is good to hear that they are trying to integrate blockchain technology in their system.

[bbc.reporter]

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.

It appears that the city of Lugano wants to use the American dollar but only without depending on the American Federal Reserve's dollar printer hehehe. This is comedy. However, I certainly agree with you. This acceptance will only spread Tether's systemic risk from the cryptospace to also slowly go to traditional financial systems.

[so98nn]

[...]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%

Never mind, bitcoin is more or less impacted by the war news rather than the sparks in green field. As far as war is concerned I am sure Russians and Ukrainians are pulling off the bitcoin market, so there is possibility we are loosing the value on that side. Anyways, its hard to state that but bitcoin has misbehaved multiple times since the war broke out.

Talking about the news, I am not sure why only taxes? 

Whats in the taxes that is not in the day today usage of the bitcoin? I mean if they wanna make it legal tender then hell go replenish the whole economic circle with the bitcoin use. Like that of EL Salvador. May be we can have up surge after that news.

[pooya87]

~
It appears that the city of Lugano wants to use the American dollar but only without depending on the American Federal Reserve's dollar printer hehehe. This is comedy. However, I certainly agree with you. This acceptance will only spread Tether's systemic risk from the cryptospace to also slowly go to traditional financial systems.

The part that worries me a little, because it is like a double edge sword, is that more usage of centralized shitcoin that have a risk of disaster could lead to more negative FUD about bitcoin. Imagine if they accepted a shitcoin and their transaction was reversed, funds stolen, ledger modified, ... (because it is centralized) then they start spreading FUD about bitcoin by calling all cryptocurrencies risky and all transactions easily reversible.

I said it is a double edge sword because when the scam happens it could also point out that using the shitcoin lead to loss whereas they should have used bitcoin and nothing else which could help surge bitcoin adoption instead.

I guess we have to wait and see what the inevitable Tether demise would bring to bitcoin world.

[bittraffic]

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.

It appears that the city of Lugano wants to use the American dollar but only without depending on the American Federal Reserve's dollar printer hehehe. This is comedy. However, I certainly agree with you. This acceptance will only spread Tether's systemic risk from the cryptospace to also slowly go to traditional financial systems.

They are testing the waters still and kind of balancing act whether IMF will do something against it. There is a chance that Swiss will go full on BTC if it's just a tap on the wrist. Just a slightly different path to take but they may be there too like El Salvador.  If there isn't so much rebuke, I guess it's a go signal.
Switzerland should have been the first to have adopted BTC because they are known for thier neutrality.

[Fundamentals Of]

Even if there is still no law supporting this, this is still a big thing for Bitcoin adoption. Until clear official guidelines are released from the relevant authorities, this will be called by a lot of names. This may be considered by others as adoption of Bitcoin as a legal tender, but once the law comes out, it might not be so. I think Bitcoin would only be treated as a currency but not necessarily as a legal tender. Regardless, this is still a big deal. More and more cities will definitely be accepting Bitcoin in the months and years to come.

[cygan]

Poretti said the city would “roll the red carpet” for Bitcoin businesses and enthusiasts, welcoming visitors and prospect relocators with a business-friendly environment featuring minimized bureaucracy and the ideal conditions for a company to thrive.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/lugano-switzerland-will-make-bitcoin-legal-tender

it will be very exciting to observe the whole development in this city. in addition, the Bitcoin world forum is to take place in october this year

[e_abrams]

I'm always happy to see cryptocurrencies getting mainstream recognition and acceptance.
I am curious, why this city out of the other Swiss cities though? What factored into this decision?

[qwertyup23]

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.

Anything that has to do with the development of BTC in countries is definitely welcomed especially if we see that countries are starting to see its potential and widespread use.

In the event that Lugano does indeed accept BTC as a form of payment for taxes, then that will be the start of potential implementations in the future. Its development and use has to start somewhere- and they chose for the payment of taxes, which implies that the government recognizes its use and capability in their future transactions.

I just hope that countries would soon adopt and use this as an example in order to integrate cryptocurrencies in our day-to-day transactions.

[Lucius]

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.

I agree that this is a very strange decision of the city authorities, but obviously, the guys who pull the strings with Tether know their business, because they successfully use Bitcoin not only in this case but also in El Salvador when it comes to their Bitcoin City - it doesn't seem like a coincidence at all.

In addition, Lugano has announced its stablecoin (LVGA), so we wonder if Bitocin will be relevant at all, if we know that proponents of stablecoins will advocate for their projects because they are cleaner for the environment and cheaper for transactions. If you ask me, Bitcoin is used here only to promote some completely different projects, but time will best show in which direction the whole thing will go.

[ilghan]

i was there, it was amazing.

El Salvator is a developing country, Lugano is the third financial center of Switzerland, there is a big difference.  They are planning to create the whole ecosystem to make bitcoin to succeed, not only by adopting it as a de facto legal tender but also by planning all of the interventions as per the list below. Do that in a big financial center like Lugano, and be sure that things are just going to explode for btc.

A summary:

Very well organized institutional event with a turnout of at least 600/700 people (after 2 years of restrictions I was no longer used to it). I have seen many people in the sector but also many new and curious faces.

Summary by points:
- Bitcoin, USDT and Luga (a local token pegged to the cent of a franc) will be legal tender in Lugano. For BTC it will use Lightning Network, for the other Polygon in order to minimize the impact of fees)

- you can pay taxes, buy things and services with BTC / USDT / LUGA (at the moment over 200 businesses have joined)

- 3 million francs have already been allocated to help local companies gear up to accept crypto

- 100 million will be allocated to attract crypto companies from abroad

- there will be 500 scholarships to train professional figures in the crypto world (dev, compliance, customer care)

- space will be created for 25 startups in the crypto world

- a mining project will start that will use electricity from 100% renewable sources

- on 26/27/28 October there will be a 3-day event in Lugano. The Bitcoin World Forum


Recording of the event (Eng/ita) : https://youtu.be/Zfh-oOlt03I

[romero121]

Making bitcoin legal tender is a big thing to be done by centralized governments. El Salvador took a very strong decision against opposition from different organisations and countries. The credit goes to the president Nayib Bukele, because he was strong in his decision and when more leaders criticised his decision. Swiss City Laguna's plan for making bitcoin legal tender is not a big thing in my view, because Switzerland is already a crypto friendly country.

[BlackHatCoiner]

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.

Which makes me believe there are benefits we don't yet see. Legalizing Tether gives me the impression that there are some really shady things going on.

It appears that the city of Lugano wants to use the American dollar but only without depending on the American Federal Reserve's dollar printer hehehe.

It doesn't want to be dependent of the USD, but it wants USDT which is a stable coin of USD with an extra layer of centralization? Nope, that's definitely not the case.

[goldkingcoiner]

In any case, this somehow brings optimism to the process of blockchain integration, and now Polygon announces that it has been selected as the official blockchain platform of the Swiss city of Lugano, to help in the development of blockchain infrastructure.

Source: https://twitter.com/0xPolygon/status/1499493327502143488

So far this news has only been coming from the side of polygon? Are there any legit sources that they are making Bitcoin legal tender? The article points to the supposed plans of Lugano but nowhere does it say anything about Bitcoin becoming legal tender there. In fact, I very much doubt a single city can make that kind of decision by itself. The entire government would have to weigh in. In fact, thats where the first news would come from.

Nonetheless, I will keep an eye out on the development...

[darewaller]

It is definitely a good news whenever bitcoin gets accepted in more places. It is obvious that we will rarely see any kind of change in the approach from other places just because of this, but it is not impossible neither. I believe this could have been even more promoted after the El Salvador deal.

I am not saying that they did it because El Salvador did it, but they were probably looking at doing it anyway, and then El Salvador doing it ended up being the key thing that they looked at and they saw that it helped them. Now this is probably a richer place than El Salvador, even if it is just a city, and I think they could do a lot better job.

[cheezcarls]

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.

For me, I think that’s a good thing for Lugano (a Swiss City) to embrace cryptocurrencies by making it as a legal tender and to introduce crypto taxes. But this is just the city alone, and not the entire country. Imagine if the whole country would do this instead of the city alone. It would be huge of course, just like in El Salvador.

But of course, there are some concerns such as the usage of Bitcoin. If they are going to use the Lightning Network, the transaction fees aren’t concerning at all.

[fzkto]

So it will soon be possible to pay for purchases in shops in this city with bitcoin? That's certainly good news, especially from a developed country like Switzerland. The only thing I don't understand is whether it has anything to do with the Tether partnership. If I understand correctly, bitcoin will be converted into USDT which equals 1:1 to the dollar. Or does the bitcoin remain bitcoin and goes to the BTC address? If not, it's a tricky business for Tether.

[fullhdpixel]

For me, I think that’s a good thing for Lugano (a Swiss City) to embrace cryptocurrencies by making it as a legal tender and to introduce crypto taxes. But this is just the city alone, and not the entire country. Imagine if the whole country would do this instead of the city alone. It would be huge of course, just like in El Salvador.

But of course, there are some concerns such as the usage of Bitcoin. If they are going to use the Lightning Network, the transaction fees aren’t concerning at all.

Switzerland is a huge nation and they are in Europe as well, it would be difficult for them to accept something like that right away. I am not saying that they can't, or they won't because I believe that based on what happens, they may actually do it in the future. However, it is harder and more difficult to do it for a whole nation.

But, isn't that lovely? I mean when it was El Salvador they said that it was a small nation and ran by some corrupt person and attacked it endlessly. Now it is a Swiss city, lets see what they will say about it. I believe even Miami could do that soon, mayor is working hard to make it true but laws make it harder for him.