Lugano accepts bitcoin everywhere — but does anyone actually use it?

[Hypnotizer]

My opinion is that Bitcoin is still mostly viewed as a means for preserving and growing capital rather than a payment method. But it's good to see increasing adoption. What do you think?

Same as you. If I lived in Lugano, I would probably make some payments in bitcoin, but I would prefer to save most of my bitcoin and make everyday payments in fiat currency. The opposite makes no sense. Nowadays, there are many options and it is very easy to pay in fiat currency, but we cannot say the same for Bitcoin. For example, I don't use LN. If I wanted to pay for a coffee with Bitcoin, I would have to resort to it because paying for a coffee via blockchain is impractical, and for LN I would have to either open channels or resort to a centralized solution.

That’s why it is an option for payment, personally I would pay in bitcoin for big transactions like if a buying a car or something a bit expensive even if I’m in Lugano. Maybe people just prefer paying in fiat or other payment options for small payment because they don’t have a LN channel and they don’t want to open one just for paying in bitcoin when they have simpler alternatives for payment.

I’m kinda curious 🧐, does the price of the goods and services have a fix price in bitcoin for people who wish to pay in bitcoin (i.e 0.43 btc for a car)? Or is it linked to fiat($40k in bitcoin for a car)? Maybe this also have something to do with people preferring fiat payment for goods IMO.

[purple_sparkles]

I think the habit of using fiat money so quickly and easily will not disappear overnight it’s a gradual process. If governments create a shortage of small banknotes, it will become easier for people to switch to electronic payments, including cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. People may even start preferring it, because despite its high volatility, bitcoin is often more predictable than any state-issued currency.

[Reatim]

In reality, usage seems limited. Shop owners say only a few customers actually pay in BTC, even though fees are lower than credit cards.

My opinion is that Bitcoin is still mostly viewed as a means for preserving and growing capital rather than a payment method. But it's good to see increasing adoption. What do you think?

as you said the bank fees are gonna be higher than btc fees so i believe that it’s only a matter of time before bitcoin ends up getting used by most people but right now everyone is still looking at btc as an investment option rather than something to spend

[NeuroticFish]

If I lived in Lugano, I would probably make some payments in bitcoin, but I would prefer to save most of my bitcoin and make everyday payments in fiat currency.

I think that this situation would stand also if you'd go as tourist there.

For example, I don't use LN. If I wanted to pay for a coffee with Bitcoin, I would have to resort to it because paying for a coffee via blockchain is impractical, and for LN I would have to either open channels or resort to a centralized solution.

The fact that you, as legendary member of bitcointalk, not yet using LN I see it somewhat a (small!!) problem. I mean that you should at least try it, although from my own experience, my LN wallet is still mostly unused because I don't really have places where to spend bitcoin.

Yes, buying coffee with bitcoin is not that much practical, although you may stay and drink it until it confirms Buying groceries is even worse. But really, I think that people makes LN look bad for no good reason. Yes, in many cases one will use 3rd party for this; as long as you put there only the money you'll spend that day (or those days) it's not a big risk.


I think that all this is pretty much a problem with difficult solution:
[1] As long as bitcoin price grows so fast over longer period of time, people will think twice before spending. In time the growth will slow down, but we are probably not there yet.
[2] Accepting bitcoin means some costs - hardware for cashing in and handling receipts (with some luck provided by the city), maybe knowledge (grandma' may not know how to handle this) which some will do, some not, especially, as written in [1], not many will actually spend bitcoin.
[3] I've seen that "cheaper than credit card" is sold here and there. Nice, however, I feel that something is missing, which this post of @Don Pedro Dinero reminded me of: while it's cheaper for the merchant, it transfers some costs to buyer. That can be on-chain tx fee (no matter if towards the merchant or towards the LN wallet), that can be 3rd party LN provider fee, or other LN related fees. They are small, but they are on the buyer's side. If somebody adds up all the extra cents, plus maybe a not-so-great exchange rate, will think "why pay with my precious bitcoins when it's cheaper with fiat?"

That's why I've said about being a tourist. As a tourist you go through a bad exchange rate and maybe other fees anyway. And then maybe using your bitcoins (maybe even bought when the price was lower) instead of using your card and your bank's exchange rate is a good business. But in 2025 that stands for quite few people, sadly.

[Bastketsrus]

My opinion is that Bitcoin is still mostly viewed as a means for preserving and growing capital rather than a payment method. But it's good to see increasing adoption. What do you think?

Same as you. If I lived in Lugano, I would probably make some payments in bitcoin, but I would prefer to save most of my bitcoin and make everyday payments in fiat currency. The opposite makes no sense. Nowadays, there are many options and it is very easy to pay in fiat currency, but we cannot say the same for Bitcoin. For example, I don't use LN. If I wanted to pay for a coffee with Bitcoin, I would have to resort to it because paying for a coffee via blockchain is impractical, and for LN I would have to either open channels or resort to a centralized solution.

Totally agree. Bitcoin is better for saving right now, while fiat is still easier for daily spending. Until BTC payments become simple and smooth, this approach just makes sense.

[Bastketsrus]

My opinion is that Bitcoin is still mostly viewed as a means for preserving and growing capital rather than a payment method. But it's good to see increasing adoption. What do you think?

Same as you. If I lived in Lugano, I would probably make some payments in bitcoin, but I would prefer to save most of my bitcoin and make everyday payments in fiat currency. The opposite makes no sense. Nowadays, there are many options and it is very easy to pay in fiat currency, but we cannot say the same for Bitcoin. For example, I don't use LN. If I wanted to pay for a coffee with Bitcoin, I would have to resort to it because paying for a coffee via blockchain is impractical, and for LN I would have to either open channels or resort to a centralized solution.

That’s why it is an option for payment, personally I would pay in bitcoin for big transactions like if a buying a car or something a bit expensive even if I’m in Lugano. Maybe people just prefer paying in fiat or other payment options for small payment because they don’t have a LN channel and they don’t want to open one just for paying in bitcoin when they have simpler alternatives for payment.

I’m kinda curious 🧐, does the price of the goods and services have a fix price in bitcoin for people who wish to pay in bitcoin (i.e 0.43 btc for a car)? Or is it linked to fiat($40k in bitcoin for a car)? Maybe this also have something to do with people preferring fiat payment for goods IMO.

Yeah, that makes sense. Fiat is easier for small stuff, while Bitcoin fits better for bigger purchases. And since prices are usually set in fiat and just converted to BTC, it’s not surprising most people still choose fiat.

[HajiBagi]

Lugano, Switzerland has quietly turned into one of the few places where you can pay with bitcoin for everyday stuff — coffee, restaurants, shops, even some municipal services like childcare. The city handed out BTC payment terminals to merchants, but everything can still be paid in Swiss francs. Bitcoin is optional, not forced.

The same thing was talked about El-Salvador when it newly adopted bitcoin as a legal tender, people were saying that bitcoin is not being used by the citizens, but what we have forgotten is that we can't expect for a quick return with new implementation, everything works by time and take the normal process before the people could get used to it, it may take a little while for the uses to be harmonized fully with the people.

Everything will take time before it happens and gradually bitcoin will grow more than the one we have seen, there are some countries that people will think citizens can not use bitcoin as a payment method but when time comes they will realise that everything is possible as long as we are still alive, there are countries where you can not use bitcoin to buy anything because some people don’t trust, some people will understand it but they have trust issues just like some people saying about El-Salvador.

I have said before that bitcoin will continue to grow and people who don’t like will be part of people that will soon value it more than anyone, using bitcoin to pay your bills help people a lot, most especially when you don’t have fiat currency and you are in an emergency situation, it also help the company or an hotel that accept it and develop country in many ways.

[Smartprofit]

In my opinion, Bitcoin is an alternative to the modern financial system. 🙋

That's why its use in Switzerland is so controversial. The Swiss are very law-abiding people. They certainly comply with all AML and KYC requirements.

In my opinion, Bitcoin works well in emergency situations. Military conflicts, economic sanctions, the need to transfer capital across borders, the collapse of the modern financial system, a serious economic crisis... These are precisely the situations in which Bitcoin shines. Although, of course, I wouldn't wish such difficult, emergency circumstances on anyone.

If you have fiat currency, if your country has a central bank digital currency (CBDC), and you're happy with it, then why do you need Bitcoin? If you feel like you're living in a digital concentration camp, if your civil rights and liberties are being taken away, then perhaps Bitcoin is what you need. And creating a hybrid of a hedgehog and a snake, in my opinion, is impossible.  Despite the fact that people have been trying hard to do this throughout 2025.🪅

[Ucy]

Bitcoin is a currency of productivity or profitablility rather than for unproductive/unprofitable uses, this means people are better off holding Bitcoin to have more, or spending bitcoins on something equally or more profitable than they would make holding.
So, people would likely want to spend more Bitcoin on things that will increase their productivity as well as profitability, to probably earn them more bitcoins, and this to them will be a viable option to using Bitcoin as Store of Value.
If you want them to spend more bitcoins than they save, let them realize that spending is more or equally profitable as holding, and incentivize this with products/services that give more value that is equal or greater than using Bitcoin as Store of Value

And this is best done within a Bitcoin economy so that few people are exchanging bitcoins for fiats to buy what they need. And sellers are earning bitcoins that could increase in value.

[btcwoot]

with the btc price fluctuating a lot of people aren't using bitcoin as much as holding it for long term assets. While the use cases become more visible people will also decide to just keep the bitcoin and not actually use it.

[Z-tight]

Unlike El Salvador, there’s no legal tender law and no incentives pushing people to use it.

Even when BTC was a legal tender in El Salvador, which it no longer is, people over there hardly used BTC. However, i think in that case it was more about a lack of understanding of BTC, than volatility, custody risks and other supposed risks. I always believed that the government of El Salvador may not have introduced BTC to her people in the best way possible.

Anyway, it is great to hear about what's happening in Lugano, and it is very possible that people would catch on soon enough. I get it that the possibility of profit makes it difficult for some people to spend BTC, but that has to slowly change in the future, maybe when BTC becomes less volatile.

[shield132]

Lugano, Switzerland has quietly turned into one of the few places where you can pay with bitcoin for everyday stuff — coffee, restaurants, shops, even some municipal services like childcare. The city handed out BTC payment terminals to merchants, but everything can still be paid in Swiss francs. Bitcoin is optional, not forced.

In reality, usage seems limited. Shop owners say only a few customers actually pay in BTC, even though fees are lower than credit cards. The city and its “Plan B” initiative talk about building a circular bitcoin economy over time, but for now it feels more like an experiment than a shift in behavior.

Unlike El Salvador, there’s no legal tender law and no incentives pushing people to use it. That avoids backlash, but it also means adoption is slow and mostly ideological. Critics point to volatility, custody risks, and reputational concerns. Supporters say this is the only realistic way bitcoin could ever work as money.

I've read the article here if you want to have a small lecture: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0r959n91p4o

My opinion is that Bitcoin is still mostly viewed as a means for preserving and growing capital rather than a payment method. But it's good to see increasing adoption. What do you think?

People don't use it because Bitcoin is not a popular currency when it comes to payments. It doesn't feel comfortable to open an Electrum wallet on your smartphone, then type the address or scan the QR code if available and then send it. It also doesn't feel comfortable to add a Bitcoin address on Binance and get it whitelisted via various confirmation methods like sms, email and 2FA. It's very easy and comfortable to carry a Visa/Master card with you and pay with it by putting it on a terminal for a second.

[pruta]

...
Unlike El Salvador, there’s no legal tender law and no incentives pushing people to use it. That avoids backlash, but it also means adoption is slow and mostly ideological. Critics point to volatility, custody risks, and reputational concerns. Supporters say this is the only realistic way bitcoin could ever work as money.
...

I don't agree. We have always had many forms of money. We will never have only one. A long time ago, humans used silver, gold, and sea shells. You might trade a loaf of bread for sea shells, a sword for silver, and a wife or a house for gold. Bitcoin doesn't make sense to use for buying a coffee, but it does make sense to use for buying a house, a vehicle, doing a business deal, or whatever else the parties in the transaction agree on. Humans are free to choose which form of money suits their transaction. A merchant would not deny someone paying in gold for their loaf of bread, nor would they deny getting paid in bitcoin once we get there. But as a spender, why would you use the most scarce money (gold, bitcoin) to pay for a trivial good? Bitcoin does not need to work well for buying coffee, it just needs to work well living up to its fundamental properties. If I had doge, bitcoin and ethereum in my wallet, I would personally buy my coffee with doge, my bicycle with ethereum and my house with bitcoin. This is just an example, but as humans we assign different value to different forms of money depending on their scarcity, and therefore some types of money are better suited for some transactions than others. I suppose the counter argument is, dollars are used both for buying coffee and for buying houses, and this is true. Fiat is weird like that and I welcome the debate. But if we compare bitcoin to metals or other non-fiat forms of money, it seems to me we should not attempt to recreate fiat with bitcoin but rather let it occupy the space it naturally fills.

[fuguebtc]

I’m kinda curious 🧐, does the price of the goods and services have a fix price in bitcoin for people who wish to pay in bitcoin (i.e 0.43 btc for a car)? Or is it linked to fiat($40k in bitcoin for a car)?

Technically, stores and sellers have the right to list prices directly in BTC. But I don't think they'll do that because Bitcoin is quite volatile compared to their local currency, CHF, and that would significantly impact their business.

Furthermore, Bitcoin is just one option, they also accept USDT or LVGA, a token pegged to CHF. Therefore, listing prices in CHF remains the best option.

Maybe this also have something to do with people preferring fiat payment for goods IMO

I don't think anyone who bought Bitcoin at $120k would use it to pay for a large transaction like $40k when the price of Bitcoin has dropped to $87k. That would be a huge loss, and I don't think anyone would do that. Therefore, pricing goods in Bitcoin does not necessarily convince people to use Bitcoin more instead of fiat.

[yhiaali3]

Unfortunately, few people view Bitcoin as a currency or a means of payment; the majority still see it as a way to preserve and grow capital, or even a quick way to get rich.
Here in my country, many people haven't even heard of Bitcoin, and most of those who have don't know that it can be used for payments and that it was originally created as a decentralized peer-to-peer payment system. Most of the people I know ask me about investing in Bitcoin simply to grow their money.

[bitbollo]

I had the chance to use more than one time bitcoin in Lugano. But as usual this is not automatic and it's also linked to other thinks...
Likewise... some credit cards (AMex revolut etc ) offer points and cashback. Even coffee could be 6-10% cheap!
Meanwhile LN transactions have some fees (for transaction) to be spent. For sure this is the beginning.

We can't expect that everyone/everyplace would LOVE bitcoin likewise "wow this is the first time I see digital money"!
Probably, new use cases are booming. Or I would say also NEW WAY TO SPEND, thanks to digital wallets and all products that can be included inside.

[Publictalk792]

The way Lugano handles it appears to be more practical as opposed to making people use Bitcoin, as they are free to make their choice and still use Swiss francs. This prevents any political issues, but it also means that use remains slow and restricted to individuals who already have faith in Bitcoin. Other problem is that Bitcoin is not yet good option when it comes to making daily payments since its price changes much, taxes may be put on  money when spending it, and people fear losing their money. Even lower charges are not much when users experience these risks. Nevertheless, test conducted by Lugano is important as it allows businesses, citizens, and lawmakers to understand working of Bitcoin in real life world without stress. When Bitcoin becomes common way of payment, it will probably not do so at once and all at once, but gradually and by choice in locations such as Lugano.

[LogitechMouse]

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My opinion is that Bitcoin is still mostly viewed as a means for preserving and growing capital rather than a payment method. But it's good to see increasing adoption. What do you think?

That's also how I look on Bitcoin... or at least that's how most of the Bitcoin holders look at it. They look at it more as an asset rather than a currency because of it's volatility nature. I mean we can't blame them because for them, "Why they would spend a thing like Bitcoin in something like coffee or other material things when they can just put it in a wallet, hold it and it will give them profit after a few years?" That's the mindset of most of the Bitcoin holders.

This is why for me, I will not be surprised if there will be some establishments out there that will try and accept stablecoins instead of volatile assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum although there will still be some that will try and accept it. Accepting stablecoins would increase the adoption of the cryptocurrency in general still so it's still good... I guess? Here in our place and the whole country, the look at Bitcoin as something that will give them profits rather than something that they'll be using to buy things either online or offline.

[DanWalker]

Unfortunately, few people view Bitcoin as a currency or a means of payment; the majority still see it as a way to preserve and grow capital, or even a quick way to get rich.
Here in my country, many people haven't even heard of Bitcoin, and most of those who have don't know that it can be used for payments and that it was originally created as a decentralized peer-to-peer payment system. Most of the people I know ask me about investing in Bitcoin simply to grow their money.

Even we, who knew about bitcoin earlier than the rest of the world, only saw it as a tool for getting rich quickly. Most people are only interested in how to accumulate the most bitcoin and earn the highest profit. So, you shouldn't be surprised that new investors who have recently entered the market show little interest in, or even no knowledge of the original purpose of bitcoin.

People often blame the government, and not many stores in their area accept bitcoin as a method of payment. That's not wrong, but the more important reason is that most people just want to hoard it, nobody wants to use bitcoin for payments.