What’s “Lugano’s Plan B”? The 9th biggest city in Switzerland plans to become Europe’s Bitcoin city. Tether can help. The question is, how will they do it? 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.
#bitcoinStablecoins and other digital currencies are changing the face of finance. #tetherThe City of Lugano🇨🇭 @luganomycityThey are collaborating to make Lugano the European. #bitcoin capital.
A plan is essential for every city. 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
“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 ₿!
3 March 2022, I’ll Join @MicheleLuganoIn a live conference to reveal the plan
100% #cryptoWill relocate to Lugano🤯#Bitcoin🇨🇭⚡️ https://t.co/dely2sBeNM— Paolo Ardoino (@paoloardoino) February 21, 2022
All this sounds great, but are they really 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. It is not the same as a bitcoin-city.
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How Much Bitcoin Will Lugano‘s Plan B Have?
Michele Foletti answered the worst question in a Twitter exchange. 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. Foletti: What was your response?
“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”?
Source : BTC/USD tradingview.com| Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Promoted by The City Of Lugano, an Institutional Blockchain Platform
A report on the Lugano NFT Week (an event which points to crypto) 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.”
Is this man actually familiar with bitcoin? Or is Lugano’s Plan B project using bitcoin in an affinity scam?
Schnee 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. It sums up everything:
“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. Are you more against bitcoin?
Conclusion and Disappointment
Bitcoin is a Proof of Work system. It is a Proof-Of-Work system. You must do the hard work to understand it. El Salvador became the first country in the world to accept bitcoin as legal currency. 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.
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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. We might be surprised at their March 3rd conference. Perhaps Lugano does have a plan B.
Featured Photo: Snow In Lugano by By Charts by TradingViewPaolo Ardoino. From this tweet. | Charts by TradingView