El Salvador made history when it awarded Bitcoin the label of ‘legal tender’. It was the first nation to take this ‘official’ step. NaribBukele, the President had put it to the vote. Barring a small percentage who refused to favor the move, the majority were happy about Benefits of Bitcoin. Furthermore, the President also announced that there would be no capital gains tax levied on Bitcoin.
The success of this move, has prompted Switzerland to follow suit.
Lugano Favors Bitcoin as Legal Tender
Lugano is a major financial center in southern Switzerland.Therefore, it seems ideal that Bitcoin should find so much favor in this area! Two other coins share this honor with Bitcoin. One of them is Tether, a stablecoin. The other is LVGA, Lugano’s own stablecoin.
Michele Foletti, Polo Ardoino, and Pietro Poretti made the public announcements about Bitcoin. Foletti is the mayor. Ardoino is the chief technology officer for Tether. Poretti is the city director.
According to Poretti, it would be possible for the Swiss people to use Bitcoin for paying taxes, and charges for various public services. Ardoino took to Twitter, to announce that over 200 shops and businesses in Switzerland were ready to accept any of these three coins as payment.
The detailed list of items and services payable via cryptos, includes –
- Parking tickets
- Market site charges
- Sewage charges
- Fees for insuring of ID and passport
- All manner of public services
- Fees for meals and tuitions
- Garbage fees and taxes
- Dog taxes
- Taxes on cemetery services
- Fees for obtaining construction permits
- Fees for docking boats
- Naturalization fee
- Charges for obtaining excerpts from official registers
- Access to public events, public infrastructure, and rental areas for conducting events
All three coins may come into play for dealing with corporate municipal taxes and personal taxes.
Lugano’s Future Plans
The financial hub of Switzerland has big plans for popularizing the three cryptocurrencies.
Polygon
Polygon company is keen to provide the additional infrastructure needed for Stablecoins, Ethereum’s products. They will have a great blockchain platform for their operations.
Polygon refers to Ethereum’s easy-to-use and well-structured platform. It aids in the development of infrastructure, and scaling. The platform is excellent for developing Dapps too.
USDT Tether and LVGA Token
Lugano has a Plan B in place. The Plan aims to convert the city into a center that advertises adoption of blockchains across Europe. This way, the financial hub aims to regain its past glory. This glory had been on the decline for quite some time.
Since Tether is pegged to the U.S. dollar, its value generally remains steady. Other cryptocurrencies cannot boast of the same.
Lugano City itself was responsible for the launch of another de facto legal tender, LVGA token.
Lugano City may feel justifiably proud of the strides taken in the Web3 space. Experts have successfully set up 3AChain, a blockchain. Over 30 partners from both, the private, and the public, sectors, are utilizing it.
Bitcoin
Lugano consists of over 60,000 inhabitants. As mentioned earlier, they may use any of the three cryptocurrencies to pay taxes, and as investment materials. They may purchase/sell/exchange services/goods, using USDT Tether, LVGA token, or Bitcoin.
Switzerland recognizes that Bitcoin is the largest digital currency by market cap. Therefore, Lugano’s mayor has granted permission to host the Bitcoin World Forum in the city, from October 26 to October 28.
Miscellaneous
A specialized hub is about to come into play for hosting different companies. Additionally, a funding of 100 million Swiss Francs is also on hand, for financing blockchain-based projects.
Similarly, local businesses are being encouraged to adopt speed. The authorities are setting aside 3 million Swiss Francs for this purpose.
Apart from this, there is a scholarship project in the offing. The scholarships will go towards enabling 500+ students, who are keen to know more about digital currencies and DeFi (decentralized finance).
Like every other Government, the Swiss Government also has regulations regarding cryptocurrencies in place. However, it desires to make the regulatory framework more user-friendly, in future. Both, Johann Schneider-Ammann, and Jorg Gasser, have expressed the desire to convert Switzerland into a crypto nation. Schneider-Ammann is the ex-Swiss Economics Minister. Gasser is the ex-Swiss Secretary for International Finance. Their objectives are bound to come to fruition, thanks to advanced technologies.