Lugano City Hall and Tether have made clarifications to their Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) regarding the Plan ₿ Agreement.
Clarifications were made to the Plan ₿ Memorandum of Agreement that Lugano City Hall had previously engaged into with Tether in response to a request from City Councilor Raoul Ghisletta.
Explanations regarding the strategic partnership between Tether, the City of Lugano, and the Plan
Socialist City Councilor Raoul Ghisletta, along with PS members Edoardo Cappelletti, Mattea David, Dario Petrini, and Aurelio Sargenti, had forwarded a request for information regarding Plan on the 10th of February.
Together with that came the response that explained the Plan between the City of Lugano and the company Tether. This response described the nature and aim of the collaboration and brought additional data about it.
Initially, the controversial March 3, 2022 Plan legalized Tether, Bitcoin Lightning, and LVGA in the Swiss city. This clarifies the Tether letter of intent: A strategic relationship will strengthen Lugano’s status as a Swiss and European blockchain technology hub through real projects and solutions.
International event strategy, execution, and promotion should help achieve this goal. The first global event in October was the annual Plan B Forum in Lugano, which drew 2,000 participants and generated 20,000 CHF in BTC, USDT, and LVGA transactions (or Swiss francs).
Yet, this strategic cooperation between Lugano and Tether is specified in an agreement of intent with a minimum length of 4 years.
With worries about the technology’s expenses and finances, Tether, Lugano, and Plan B
The matter of the expenditures associated with the partnership with Tether was also highlighted by Lugano City Hall.
The City sought and paid for content distribution outside the forum at Piazza Castello, which cost roughly 30.000 francs. The Tether firm appears to be responsible for most of the expenses.
The City of Lugano also allegedly paid 5,000 CHF for two World Economic Forum delegates to Davos in 2022.
According to international media coverage, Lugano justified the investment by arguing that the image impact and return would be considerably bigger.
The executive gave the following response when asked about financial worries regarding the deployment of the technology underpinning Tether:
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 birthday of Plan
Tether and Lugano City Hall celebrated the Plan project’s first anniversary while City Hall details the cooperation.
A 100 million Swiss franc fund for cryptocurrency startups and a 3 million franc fund to help Lugano businesses adopt cryptocurrencies were at stake.
Bitcoin, Tether, and Lugano’s LVGA tokens can also pay taxes, parking fines, utilities, and university fees. One year after Plan’s launch, over 150 Lugano businesses accept BTC, USDT, and LVGA, including McDonald’s.
As a result of this drive, numerous startups and business owners have relocated to Lugano, bringing with them a sizable amount of investment. One result has been a boost to the local economy and the creation of new, well-paying jobs.
Tether and the City of Lugano recently unveiled The Plan Business Hub, which will look into the area’s acceptance and long-term use of cryptocurrencies as well as the potential of blockchain business technology.
