City of Lugano In Switzerland Wants Bitcoin As Legal Tender

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Switzerland! What a beautiful country to live in and visit. It is a rich country. But not only rich in financial and economic terms, but rich in culture, cuisine, technology, art, and talents. It is especially rich with its unique geographical and natural characteristics. It has gorgeous mountains, beautiful lakes, and breathtaking greenery everywhere. Despite being located in the heart of Europe, its political structure vastly differs from other countries that surround it.

It implements direct democracy as we haven't seen anywhere else. A group of citizens may challenge a law passed by parliament if they gather only 50 thousand signatures against the law, and this can lead to national vote on the topic. It also know for avoiding military alliances and maintaining neutrality in global political affairs. Even role of a president is not like we see in any other countries. Federal Council that is made of seven members serve as head of state. The president is elected among these members for one year term and rotates among these members.

Switzerland is also widely known for its banking industry. It has always been knows as world's foremost banking and financial centers in the modern history. Not only it has managed to become world's financial hub, it has also attracted wealthy individuals, companies and sovereign countries for banking services. It wouldn't be a mistake to say that world's brightest minds of finance and money are located in this country.

For these reasons, I wasn't surprised when I saw an announcement that Lugano, one of the cities in Switzerland set itself goals of making bitcoin a legal tender. Not only they are planning to make bitcoin a legal tender, but also they are working in partnership with Tether and want to have tether as a legal tender as well. In addition to bitcoin and tether, they also have their city crypto token, LVGA.

What City of Lugano is trying to do is make itself open to become a crypto hub of Europe with its initial goals making bitcoin, tether, and LVGA additional payment methods for everyday life. It is clear, El Salvador's law and efforts of making bitcoin a legal tender served as inspiration for Lugano. Not only they are following the same road-map, but also expanding use of crypto in the form of allowing tether and their own city token in everyday payments among people and businesses.

I don't know much about the company that issues tether, but I can see this partnership to be beneficial for the city. Tether account used on Twitter, @tether_to tweeted the following on March 3, 2022.

Reveal spoiler

BREAKING NEWS: #Bitcoin, #Tether & the City's LVGA token will become de facto LEGAL TENDER in Lugano
#LuganoPlanB

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That is great news. However, I would like to point out to the wording of this statement. It says "de facto". This means the city will be implementing the use of bitcoin, tether, and LVGA in practice. However, it will not be backed by a law as it has been done in El Salvador. I am not even sure you can call it "legal" tender, while there is no law that states that. Perhaps, these are just initial stages of making these efforts a reality, and in the future we may see some legislative efforts to actually make these coins legal tender. There also need to be a review of how monetary policies are made in the country. Because in some countries, cities do not have the authority to declare any currency as legal tender, and such authority belongs to the countries legislature.

As long as the country itself doesn't oppose such actions and ambitions of one of their cities, de facto implementation may just be enough. And hopefully, if successful, one day this will lead Switzerland to adopt bitcoin as legal tender de jure. Why not? Switzerland with its creative talents, financial brains, and resources can lead the way in this revolutionary transformation of the financial systems. It is also a country that is not part of EU, while being located in the middle of Europe. It has its own currency, Swiss francs. This is a country and people that can decide what is best for them without any legal or political obligations to other countries. That's why I think Switzerland is in a great position to become world's crypto hub, just last it has been world's banking and finance hub for a long time.

Roads to the summits start at the valleys. Maybe the paving the way for bitcoin and crypto adoption is best done by cities and provinces, instead of countries. This can demonstrate the benefits, use-case, and impact in a local and practical levels for people to recognize the power of bitcoin in a more educated manner as a country. As I mentioned earlier, Switzerland's political structure and how it works is different than other democracies, and people in this country have more power to make changes and don't only have to rely on representatives. That is also why I think adoption of bitcoin can be done in a more efficient manner here. I don't know the overall sentiment of the government towards bitcoin yet. Even if they may not have any immediate plans in this regard, cities and people being pro-active will eventually persuade them in making changes that are actually beneficial for the people and the country.

As if right now, it seems like citizens of Lugano can pay their taxes with these three offered cryptocurrencies, pay for government services, transact with each other. More than 200 busineses and merchants are getting ready to accept bitcoin, tether and LVGA. I do like their own token project. It will be interesting to follow how they will utilize it. I hope these goals will be achieved and they become successful in this journey.

Good Luck Lugano!

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