Tether, City of Lugano and the Plan ₿

At the request of City Councilor Raoul Ghisletta, Lugano City Hall has clarified the Plan ₿ Memorandum of Understanding entered into with Tether.

Tether, City of Lugano and the Plan ₿: explanations on the strategic collaboration

On 10 February, Socialist City Councilor Raoul Ghisletta, together with Ps members Edoardo Cappelletti, Mattea David, Dario Petrini and Aurelio Sargenti, had forwarded a request for information regarding Plan ₿.

With that came the response explaining the Plan ₿ between the City of Lugano and the Tether company, describing the nature and purpose of the collaboration and bringing additional details about it.

First of all, the famous Plan ₿ stipulated on 3 March 2022, had made Tether, Bitcoin Lightning and LVGA as legal currencies in the Swiss city. In this regard, the explanation better defines the memorandum of intent with Tether as follows:

“a strategic collaboration, with the aim of strengthening Lugano’s positioning as a Swiss and European hub for digital innovation with a focus on blockchain technology through concrete projects and solutions.”

This goal was expected to be achieved through the training, organization and promotion of international events. And indeed, in October there was the first international event, the annual Plan B Forum in Lugano that saw 2,000 participants, with transactions in BTC, USDT and LVGA totaling 20,000 CHF (or Swiss francs).

In any case, this strategic collaboration between the City of Lugano and Tether does not constitute a convention, but a letter of intent with a duration set at a minimum of 4 years.

Tether, Lugano and Plan B: amid costs and financial concerns about the technology

Lugano City Hall also clarified the issue about the costs related to the collaboration with Tether. 

And indeed, it seems that a large part of the costs are borne by the Tether company except for the dissemination content offered outside the forum, in Piazza Castello, wanted and financed by the City, for a total of about 30 thousand francs.

Not only that, the City of Lugano allegedly spent another 5,000 CHF for the two people, who traveled to Davos in the context of the World Economic Forum in 2022.

In this regard, the City of Lugano justified the investment, assuring that the impact and return on image were exponentially greater, as attested by global media coverage.

When it comes to financial concerns about the application of the technology behind Tether, the executive responded as follows:

“Fear and bewilderment in the face of some innovation is understandable, not least because in this specific case it is a complex technology. However, we believe that shutting down is not a solution because it has always been proven, including in the past, that innovations such as blockchain are here to stay (…) Fighting them out of partisanship makes no sense.”

The first anniversary of Plan ₿

While Lugano City Hall explains the details of the collaboration, this past 3 March 2023, both Tether and the City of Lugano celebrated the first anniversary of the Plan ₿ initiative.

At stake was the creation of a 100 million Swiss franc fund to support crypto startups and a 3 million Swiss franc fund to assist Lugano stores and businesses in adopting crypto.

In addition, Bitcoin, Tether and Lugano’s LVGA tokens have been accepted to pay for taxes, parking tickets, utilities and university fees. After one year since the establishment of Plan ₿, there are more than 150 stores and businesses in Lugano, including McDonald’s that accept BTC, USDT and LVGA as payment methods.

In addition, this initiative has also attracted a significant amount of investment to the city with many startups and entrepreneurs settling in Lugano. New well-paid jobs and a local economic boost have been some of the ramifications.

Tether and the City of Lugano also announced the launch of the Plan ₿ Business Hub, which will explore the potential of blockchain business technology, adoption and long-term use of crypto in the region.