Go Crypto, in partnership with Plan Foundation, is enabling bitcoin payments for the city of Lugano, Switzerland, including McDonald’s, which now accepts Bitcoin. The foundation, founded by the same people who founded Tether and the City of Lugano, intends to expand the adoption of bitcoin across the city by optionally impacting all daily activities for residents in the city.
This is not just optionality in the form of payments, but the foundation intends to transform the existing financial infrastructure in the city. In order to scale across the entire city, the foundation partnered with GoCrypto, a cryptocurrency payments service provider.
“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,” said Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Tether.
A dozen merchants have the option of GoCrypto payments across the city including businesses such as McDonald’s and art galleries. Over the next 25 days, the functionality is expected to expand to enable more businesses in Lugano to accept bitcoin.
A one-minute video of ordering food on McDonald’s digital kiosk and then paying for it at the regular register with the help of a mobile app was uploaded on Twitter by Bitcoin Magazine on Oct. 3. The Tether (USDT) logo could be spotted next to the Bitcoin symbol on the credit cash machine, which is not surprising, as in March 2022 the city of Lugano announced it would accept Bitcoin, Tether and the LVGA token as a legal tender.
On March 3, 2022, the city signed a memorandum of understanding with Tether Operations Limited, launching the so-called “Plan B.” According to this plan, Tether has created two funds, the first one is a $106 million, or 100 million Swiss francs, investment pool for crypto startups, and the second is around $3 million, or 3 million Swiss francs, attempt to encourage the adoption of crypto for shops and businesses across the city.
Lugano residents can also pay their taxes using crypto, the project will extend payments to parking tickets, public services, and tuition fees for students. More than 200 shops and businesses in the area are also expected to accept crypto payments for goods and services.
