A Swiss city will “de facto” start accepting crypto as payment. What does this mean?
In the southern Swiss city of Lugano, local businesses will soon be able to accept cryptocurrencies “de facto” as a means of payment after partnering with Tether. At an event called Plan B, Tether chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino said the company has set up a CHF 3 million fund in partnership with the Lugano mayor’s office. The initiative aims to encourage the adoption of Bitcoin, USDT and the LVGA token in shops and businesses in the city. This means that the city will be able to pay with digital assets. We tell you more about the situation.
It should be noted that, so far, Bitcoin is the only official and mass payment method for digital assets in El Salvador. There, the cryptocurrency is recognised as an official means of payment along with the US dollar. The new law takes effect on September 7, 2021, which is the date when BTC can even be used to pay for coffee at Starbucks.
Most importantly, the government of El Salvador is also buying BTC as a direct investment. However, the investment is now unprofitable, given the downfall of the main cryptocurrency.
President of El Salvador Nayib Buquele
Things are better at MicroStrategy. To recap, the giant has 125,051 BTCs worth $3.78 billion. That said, the average purchase price of each coin was $30,200 – and that’s well below the current Bitcoin exchange rate.
Apparently, cryptocurrencies will soon become more popular – including the ability to use them to pay for goods and services around the world.
Where cryptocurrencies are accepted
Here’s one of Ardoino’s quotes published by news outlet Cointelegraph. In it, he shares details of what’s happening in the city.
We want to show that these tools that have been created in the field of cryptocurrencies can actually be used in a locally controlled, dynamic environment such as the city of Lugano.
In addition to allowing Lugano residents to pay taxes using cryptocurrency, the project will also extend to paying for parking tickets, utilities and student fees. More than 200 shops and businesses in the region are also expected to accept cryptocurrency payments for goods and services.
However, digital asset popularisation is not happening everywhere at a steady pace. For example, trading platform OpenSea has begun suspending Iranian users’ access to their accounts, sparking outrage from a huge number of local NFT collection owners. Among them is Iranian artist Bornosor, who expressed his displeasure on Twitter. Here’s his rejoinder, published by Cointelegraph.
Not a good morning at all. Woke up and saw that my trading account on OpenSea has been deactivated/deleted without notice or any explanation.
This is not the first time users of blockchain services have been blocked. For example, the previous day Venezuelan users could not access their coins in MetaMask wallet. As it turned out later, the developers wanted to block residents of other regions, and it was a mistake.
In this case, the blockchain is possible due to the use of Infura platform, which provides access to the blockchain through its own nodes. If you run your own node, nothing like that will happen.
BAYC’s NFT collection
An OpenSea spokesperson said that the company reserves the right to block users based on sanctions. Recall that current US sanctions stipulate that US companies are prohibited from providing goods or services to any users located in countries on the sanctions list, including Iran, North Korea and Syria.
We think this news is definitely a positive one, as it confirms the fact that digital assets are being popularised. Still, visitors to yet another outlet in the world will now be able to use crypto to pay for various products on official terms. And the proliferation of payment services like Solana Pay will make the process even faster.
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