Tether Operations Limited (Tether), the technology company supporting the blockchain-enabled platform that powers the largest stablecoin by market capitalisation (USD₮), in collaboration with the vibrant Swiss city of Lugano today announced the establishment of a center of excellence for blockchain adoption in Europe.

Together, Tether and the City of Lugano will work toward the shared goal of scaling the city’s blockchain capabilities and promote Lugano as a major hub for European blockchain adoption.

Tether and Lugano

The goal of this collaboration is to demonstrate real-world use of blockchain technologies by applying it practically to local communities in Lugano. To date, most blockchain projects have focused on foundational efforts that give little attention to local communities and deliver practical applications.

The city is home to several innovative initiatives, including the Lugano Living Lab, which implement projects in the innovation and digital fields through experimentation and prototyping on an urban scale. Lugano’s ecosystem allows Tether to stretch beyond most current blockchain implementations and work hand-in-hand with Lugano for the first full-scale urban practical use case. The application in Lugano will be exhibited through localized services with tailored use cases that can reduce infrastructure costs and expand accessibility to global markets.

Future Scalability

In the near future, the city aims to scale its efforts to enable citizens and companies to fully pay their annual taxes and all goods and services in cryptocurrency. Formal approvals were obtained for only Bitcoin, Tether, and select CHF-based stablecoins to be accepted for such payments, whereby funds will be converted in local FIAT currency via different service providers. This move makes Lugano one of the first in the world to implement a full cryptocurrency payment economy.

The City of Lugano will begin working with Tether and other service providers to help local businesses integrate their existing payment services with the permitted stablecoins to ensure the technological infrastructure is in place to support this.

Lightning Network will be one of the solutions that the City, with the support of Tether, will integrate into the services. Lightning Network has grown to become a prominent, highly scalable and robust payment system overcoming scalability obstacles associated with the blockchain without surrendering security, trustlessness, or privacy.

Lugano and Tether’s Memorandum of Understanding

Lugano and Tether signed a memorandum of understanding which launches a strategic collaboration through several initiatives, including a centrally located specialized hub hosting companies and startups and acting as catalyst for everything related to blockchain to facilitate their establishment and daily operations. Lugano aims to become a home for the crypto community where it can grow and prosper.

A group of prominent companies in the crypto industry led by Tether, will create a multi-million dollar fund to help finance blockchain based startup companies focused on building blockchain services in the region. Additionally, Tether will contribute its expertise, knowledge and support to the City focusing on the education of the new generations through collaborations with local universities and research institutes (500 scholarships will be made available in the immediate future).

The initiative will also serve as a beacon of green financing. The joint effort will focus on using natural resources and environmentally friendly alternatives to power bitcoin mining, allowing for bitcoin to act as a strong accelerator for renewable energy development. This will be another example of how a city, investing in Bitcoin, can use the proceeds of mining to re-invest in the growth of local infrastructure.

"Lugano is investing in its future," said Michele Foletti, Mayor of Lugano. "In recent years, the city has already implemented blockchain-based solutions including the MyLugano app and its LVGA Points payment token, the Lugano digital franc and the 3Achain blockchain infrastructure. We strongly believe in this technology, the potential to scale the technology, – and our integrated collaboration with Tether – will build a better and more open, transparent and smart city."

"Lugano is a vibrant city, filled with innovators and future-forward thinkers," said Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Tether. "As the world’s largest stablecoin, we envision a future where businesses of all sizes and scale are able to leverage blockchain platforms to improve the quality of life of local citizens providing more sustainable, transparent, and reliable financial and day-to-day services. We look forward to Lugano becoming a model for global adoption."

This is the latest development of a process started by Lugano over one year ago with concrete actions aimed at positioning itself as the destination of choice in a rapidly growing sector. In addition to the already mentioned LVGA Points local payment system, Lugano developed a city blockchain, 3Achain, EVM compatible, which already counts about thirty partners across the most important public and private companies in Switzerland, as well as a number of blockchain related events open to the public in the fall of 2021.

Upcoming Events

The City also announced an October 2022 event, titled Bitcoin World Forum, which will promote deep conversation around freedom of communication and finance. This event will delve into topics such as disintermediation of finance, accessibility of financial services, unbanked persons, and regulation. Tether will support the conference by bringing the industry’s foremost thought leaders and creators from the world of digital finance together for collaboration and networking.

Additional details about the event and attendance will be available in the coming weeks.

About Tether

Created in October 2014, Tether was the first stablecoin in existence, and remained the sole stablecoin in the market until March 2018. Tether is disrupting the legacy financial system by offering a more modern approach to money. By adding fiat currency-digital cash to the bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains, Tether makes a significant contribution to a more connected ecosystem by introducing digital currency benefits, such as instant global transactions, to traditional currency and incorporating traditional currency benefits like price stability to digital currency. With a commitment to full transparency and compliance, Tether is the most secure, fastest, and cheapest way to transact with money.

About the City of Lugano

Lugano is the economic capital of Southern Switzerland, strategically located between the metropolitan areas of Milan and Zurich. Set in an exceptional natural context and landscape, Lugano is the ideal place for living and working.

The city hosts an important financial center and vibrant pharmaceutical, commodity trading and fashion hubs and remains a sought-after tourist destination.

A university town since 1996, Lugano is home to world class research institutes and infrastructure, including the Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence (IDSIA) and the Swiss National Supercomputing Center (CSCS).

Among the safest cities in the Country, Lugano offers business friendly legislation, great infrastructure and political stability typical of Switzerland, combined with a Mediterranean flair.

Media Contact for Tether: Carrie.Winans@fticonsulting.com

Media Contact for the City of Lugano: planb@lugano.ch