Lugano, Switzerland, is making big moves to give Bitcoin better legal status. The Mayor and his team has forged a cooperation with stablecoin issuer Tether to establish bitcoin, Tether, and Lugano’s own LVGA Points cryptocurrency as essentially legal cash in the city. The goal is to become the epicenter of Bitcoin in Europe.
You can watch the announcement on Youtube.
It’s good for Bitcoin, no doubt. And it benefits the pockets of those issuing LVGA points. Sound like food-stamps or social credits to you? Well, it’s just your average governmental seignorage-trick similar to MiamiCoin and other “citycoins”. Bitcoin destroyed the monopoly on money creation and issuance and therefore a free market for money will always exist. Few understand which money to hodl and which to spend before it loses value.
The measure goes well beyond the actions of a number of other Swiss municipalities that have been taking cryptocurrency for tax payments for quite some time. Lugano, like El Salvador, wants all of its businesses to be able to utilize bitcoin for everyday transactions in addition to taxes.
The action was billed as a “de facto” legalization at Thursday’s “Plan B” event, which was hosted by Lugano’s mayor, Michele Foletti, as the Swiss franc will undoubtedly remain the true legal money in the city.
Switzerland has already attracted the Bitcoin industry (and some shitcoiners too) in the Crypto Valley Zug. The Zuger valley is located in close proximity to Zurich, the capital of the Zurich Canton. Zurich is well renowned as a destination for the rich and wealthy and of course their money. Swiss private banking is still a must-have in a diversified portfolio of HNWI or High Networth Plebs (HNWPs) even though privacy has been castrated over time.
Since the Cantons in Switzerland can set their own tax rates and enjoy more independence to implement laws, the small nations benefit from competitive governance. Eventually, other mayors smell the money and try to catch up. Whether adoption is motivated by greed or doing good for the people is irrelevant for bitcoin. Bitcoin is always winning.
Giacomo Zucco comments exclusively for Bitcoin News and shares his disappointment
“It’s a net positive after all but I am disappointed. The information I had from Bitfinex insiders was that the plan would have been to ditch the Lugano coin scam. The idea was there would be only Swiss Franc, Bitcoin and Tether, while the Lugacoin is basically a voucher for the Swiss Franc on top of some other blockchain.
The fact that there is a shitcoin now crosses a line in the narrative that will most likely bring everything to a state of confusion as it happened in the Crypto Valley. Either you stay bitcoin-only or as soon as you open up the door, it creates incentives for any kind of bullshit to enter the game. Without the Luganocoin it could have been a signal of clarity and focus.
It was also expected that 10% of city reserves would be kept in Bitcoin, but this was dropped. The legal tender law was intended to allow real estate agencies to purchase property with bitcoin, this also doesn’t work with the proposed bill.
It’s a net positive for bitcoin but generally, I am disappointed. It could evolve to something like El Salvador or degenerate to something close to Crypto Valley of Zug.”
Credit goes to Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Bitfinex who, according to Zucco had done most of the work “orange pilling” Mayor Foletti.
Time will tell how things play out, perhaps the Bitcoin community jumps in to get things straight?
The Mayor of Lugano Michele Foletti doesn’t tweet much, he rather retweets. That, he seems to enjoy and from what I can see, it seems he has got a fair amount of humor. It’s only good because without it, he could struggle to survive the next days on Bitcoin Twitter. Congrats, Sir.
