One can live entirely on Bitcoin and Tether in the City of Lugano located in the southern-most part of Switzerland. The news was shared by Lugano Plan ₿, which is a a joint initiative between the City of Lugano and Tether, and will be holding a forum this year in October, to be organized by the City of Lugano, Tether, and Lugano’s Plan ₿.

Lugano is famous for its natural beauty (it is located on the banks of the Lugano Lake), a Film Festival, and as the home of Nobel Prize winner, Hermann Hesse. It has a population of over 60,000 with a large Italian speaking community and a high standard of living.

A Twitter user supported the claim:

Can confirm – stores from McDonald’s to tiny restaurants in Lugano accept #Bitcoin … Works great, just as easy as Apple-pay or anything else! Got some ‘paying with Bitcoin reps’ in at the #Bitfinex #PlanB conference in November…

— Stéphane Ouellette (@StephOFRNT) January 4, 2023

Bitcoin was accepted as legal tender in Lugano in March 2022. The citizens will soon be able to even pay taxes in bitcoin. The Conference website lists a page where one can map all the businesses that accept bitcoin. These include shops selling watches, art, fashion, tattoos, cars and real estate and municipal services. The map can be browsed here:

https://planb.lugano.ch/crypto-payments/

These outlets accept the LVGA token, Bitcoin Lightning (BTC) and Tether. LVGA are the official local payment token of the City of Lugano. The tokens can be spent only in the Lugano circuit and can be stored in the MyLugano App. The tokens can also be earned as a form of cashback rather than discount. The website explains:

“Through the cashback mechanism the discount is credited to MyLugano Card owners not as a reduction in the purchase price but as a credit in LVGA. The LVGA are credited with a payment transaction directly in the user app by the merchant at the local shop as a percentage of the total purchased value. The percentage is equal to 10% for MyLugano card users and 5% for MyLugano Pass users.”

It may seem like one can earn LVGA and then convert them to other crypto or even cash, but that’s not allowed. “LVGA cannot be redeemed against other crypto currencies or exchanged back in Swiss Francs,” says the site. The business partners however can do so in order to integrate them with their payment process.

The larger aim of the Plan is “to transform the city’s financial infrastructure” by using blockchain technology. The website also mentions a 100M+ Swiss Franc investment pool from Tether for supporting payment integration and blockchain ventures. Another aspect of the Plan is to introduce specialist courses in blockchain technologies at local universities.