Plan B, founded by Tether and the city of Lugano, has announced a partnership with GoCrypto to officially bring payments in Bitcoin, Tether and LVGA to the Swiss city, involving McDonald’s and others.
Summary
Plan B and GoCrypto to make BTC, USDT and LVGA payments official in Lugano
Plan B Foundation has announced that citizens of Lugano will be able to make payments in Bitcoin Lightning (BTC), Tether (USDT) and LVGA (the local token) inside McDonald’s and other businesses.
By partnering with GoCrypto, a global crypto and card payment infrastructure, Plan B Foundation is ready to launch large-scale crypto payments in the Swiss city.
In this regard, Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Tether, said:
“Earlier this year, Lugano and Tether signed a memorandum of understanding to launch a strategic collaboration through several initiatives, including to help local businesses integrate their existing payment services with the permitted stablecoins and Bitcoin. We have been working together to ensure the technological infrastructure is in place to support this and today we watch all of that hard work come to fruition.”
GoCrypto payments are available as of this week at nearly a dozen merchants in Lugano, including McDonald’s, art galleries and more.
Plan B and GoCrypto: predictions for the future of crypto payments in Lugano
Looking ahead, Plan B and GoCrypto plan to enable payments in USDT, BTC and LVGA to more businesses in Lugano in the next 25 days.
Moreover, by the time of the next Plan B Forum, the Bitcoin conference to be held in Lugano on 28 and 29 October 2022, the goal is to be able to serve more than 2,000 customers.
In this regard, Ardoino informs his Twitter followers that precisely in honor of the Plan B forum, he will be present with a panel along with Blockstream CEO Adam Back and computer scientist Nick Szabo.
Il #bitcoin PlanB forum a Lugano 🇨🇭ospitera' un panel tra @adam3us , @NickSzabo4 e me, dove discuteremo dei valori del movimento cypherpunk, le sue origini e futuro, della liberta' personale e di espressione.
28/29 Ottobre, Lugano, Svizzerahttps://t.co/sWOkSY1PgX
— Paolo Ardoino 🍐 (@paoloardoino) October 5, 2022
“The Bitcoin PlanB forum in Lugano will host a panel between @adam3us, @NickSzabo4 and me, where we will discuss the values of the cypherpunk movement, its origins and future, personal freedom and expression. 28/29 October, Lugano, Switzerland.”
By the end of 2023, Plan B Foundation also plans to reach more than 2,500 merchants accepting Bitcoin, Tether and LVGA.
Tether’s birthday: eight years for the stablecoin
Yesterday, 6 October, Tether celebrated its eighth birthday, which was commemorated on the social network of crypto-lovers.
On this day eight years ago, #Tether was born🎂🎈https://t.co/R5rG59VHJf pic.twitter.com/Flki7EFkWC
— Tether (@Tether_to) October 6, 2022
“On this day eight years ago, #Tether was born.”
Tether was the first stablecoin to appear on the crypto market, with USDT being developed on the Omni platform and pegged to the value of the US dollar, in a fixed ratio of 1:1.
Despite the various criticisms faced over the years, Tether (USDT) has managed to position itself in the crypto market in the current third place, just behind BTC and Ethereum (ETH), with over $68 billion in market capitalization.
Recently, the company announced that it had increased its Treasury Bill reserves to 58%, after it had been less than 44% in June. Although the company has shown that it has reserves to cover 100% of the USDT issued, it is still often criticized for the quality of its reserves.
Lugano as hub for Bitcoin and Blockchain technology
The aim of Plan B is to make the city of Lugano as a true hub for Bitcoin and Blockchain technology.
Announced in March 2022, the city of Lugano together with Tether Limited, would sign a memorandum of understanding to make BTC, USDT and LVGA legal tender currencies so that they would be accepted by public and private infrastructures.
At that time, Plan B revealed its goals and that is to create a Bitcoin hub in the heart of the city so as to host companies and startups that want to be there, grow and prosper.
Not only that, a 3 million per franc fund financed by prominent companies such as Tether has been established precisely to help stores and businesses convert the current payment system by integrating the ability to accept crypto. Just what is happening now.
Plan B’s support sees other funding both for startups designing infrastructure and use cases for spreading the adoption of blockchain technology and crypto in Lugano and for university students to learn what BTC is and how to use it.
