Tether & The Swiss City Of Lugano Promise “Europe’s BTC Capital.” Is It, Though?

What’s “Lugano’s Plan B”? The 9th biggest city in Switzerland plans to become Europe’s Bitcoin city. And Tether is there to help. How will the two entities accomplish that?  On March 3rd, Tether’s Paolo Ardoino and Michele Foletti, the Mayor of the city of Lugano, will unveil the plan at a live-streamed conference. 

#bitcoin and stablecoins are revolutionizing the financial sector. #tether and The City of Lugano🇨🇭 @luganomycity are teaming up to transform Lugano into the European #bitcoin capital.

Every city needs a plan. Join Lugano's Plan ₿ pic.twitter.com/wmhFVePcPo

— Tether (@Tether_to) February 21, 2022

Announcing the event, Tether summarized the situation as follows: “bitcoin and stablecoins are revolutionizing the financial sector. Tether and The City of Lugano are teaming up to transform Lugano into the European bitcoin capital.” For their part, the city’s official Twitter said, “The journey of the City of Lugano continues to discover the innovative sector #blockchain #Bitcoin #StableCoin.”

Continua il percorso della Città di #Lugano alla scoperta del settore innovativo #blockchain #Bitcoin #StableCoin👉Prossimo incontro il 3 marzo 2022, ore 17 al LAC, su iscrizione, oppure streaming @Tether_to @LuganoLivingLab https://t.co/g3NYTffvAT

— Lugano (@luganomycity) February 21, 2022

“We at Tether_to and the Administration of the City of Lugano have been tirelessly working together to prepare Lugano’s Plan ₿!,” completed Tether’s Paolo Ardoino. He was also bold enough to predict, “100% crypto will relocate to Lugano.”

We at @Tether_to and the Administration of the City of Lugano 🇨🇭 have been tirelessly working together to prepare Lugano's Plan ₿!

3rd March 2022 , I'll join @MicheleLugano (mayor) in a live conference, to disclose the plan!
100% #crypto will relocate to Lugano 🤯#Bitcoin🇨🇭⚡️ https://t.co/dely2sBeNM

— Paolo Ardoino 🍐 (@paoloardoino) February 21, 2022

This all sounds wonderful, but, are they selling smoke? Even though bitcoin is prominently shown in all of the promotional material, a deeper look at the player’s words suggests the Lugano plan is to be a crypto city. Which is very different from a bitcoin city.

Related Reading | USDC Leaves Tether Behind In Terms Of Market Cap And Becomes First On Ethereum

How Much Bitcoin Will Lugano‘s Plan B Have?

In a recent Twitter exchange, Michele Foletti responded to the worst question possible. Someone asked the Mayor of the city of Lugano about the usual bitcoin FUD, that it’s slow and expensive like the Lightning Network doesn’t exist. That it’s bad for the environment like that narrative didn’t collapse a while back. How did Foletti respond?

“We focus on our 3Achain, more sustainable, public and open to all with limited costs http://3achain.org Blockchain for us is an opportunity for all those who look to the future with curiosity.”

Ma noi puntiamo sulla nostra 3Achain, più sostenibile, pubblica e aperta a tutti con costi limitati https://t.co/r6HS5Fs42a Blockchain per noi è un’opportunità per tutti coloro che guardano al futuro con curiosità https://t.co/EQHtidHgcW

— Michele Foletti (@MicheleLugano) February 21, 2022

He basically said “blockchain, not bitcoin.” Why name the program “Plan B” and promise a “European bitcoin capital,” then? And what’s all this about a Proof-of-Authority, completely centralized blockchain that describes itself as “the institutional blockchain platform promoted by the City of Lugano”? 

BTC price chart for 02/22/2022 on Bittrex | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com

Institutional Blockchain Platform Promoted By The City Of Lugano

In an article about the recent Lugano NFT Week, an event that also points at crypto, the Europa Press agency quotes Michele Foletti saying: 

“We have always followed the development of new technologies very closely and we have identified blockchain as a topic of great interest for both multinational and local companies, citizens and businesses. We believe that a city must be at the service of citizens and with these initiatives we intend to place Lugano as a top-level player on the international scene, for all applications related to this technology.”

Does this man even know about bitcoin? Or is Lugano’s Plan B project using bitcoin in an affinity scam?

Snow in #lugano pic.twitter.com/G5bFEXuIQ5

— Paolo Ardoino 🍐 (@paoloardoino) February 15, 2022

Let’s go to 3Achain’s website to find out if “the institutional blockchain platform promoted by the City of Lugano” respects bitcoin. This quote summarizes it all:

“It’s not about replacing public (so-called permissionless) blockchains, but about complementing them with a permissioned architecture that guarantees the parties involved not so much through the integrity of the algorithm that validates transactions through computing power, but through the validation of blocks by an independent authority.”

What do they mean by “so-called permissionless”? And, in other words, they’re announcing they solved the blockchain trilemma by getting rid of decentralization. By adding a third party.  Have you heard anything more anti-bitcoin?

Conclusion And Disappointment

Bitcoin is a Proof-Of-Work system. To understand it, you have to put in the work. El Salvador was the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. It’s remarkable, almost a miracle, that President Bukele seems to understand the value proposition. Politicians don’t usually have the time for the necessary deep dive, so the world ends up disappointed. With disasters like MiamiCoin and the NY Mayor saying he’s pro bitcoin, but against bitcoin mining.

Related Reading | Cryptocurrency Firms In Switzerland To Offer Tokenized Products On Tezos

And here comes the Mayor of the city of Lugano and Tether to sing bitcoin’s praises. A “blockchain not bitcoin” guy and the organization behind the most controversial stablecoin. Even though it’s suspicious, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and hear what they have to say. They might surprise us at the March 3rd conference. Maybe Lugano has a Plan B after all.

Featured Image: Snow In Lugano, By Paolo Ardoino. From this tweet. | Charts by TradingView