If you’ve ever sought to live entirely off bitcoin, look no further than Lugano, Switzerland.
The Plan ₿ foundation recently took to Twitter to announce a new map showing the hundreds of merchants across the city that accept bitcoin. “Now you can live in Lugano just using Bitcoin!” the tweet read. “Discover everything you need to enjoy your stay in Lugano through the map with all the merchants of the Plan ₿ of Lugano.”
Plan ₿ is a city initiative designed in collaboration with Tether to attract wealth, smart minds, and opportunity. Part of this plan involved Lugano making bitcoin a de facto legal tender, which was announced in March 2022.
This was followed by the announcement of the Plan Summer School ₿, an educational opportunity for those looking to learn more about bitcoin and businesses, which took place in July 2022. The school featured expert speakers, including Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream.
More recently, the Plan ₿ foundation partnered with GoCrypto to onboard several merchants to accept bitcoin, including McDonald’s and several art galleries. At the time, the foundation predicted that it would serve more than 2,500 clients using bitcoin by the end of the year.
The Plan Foundation ₿ confirmed on Twitter today that both visitors and residents can “pay with Bitcoin for food, drinks, art, fashion, jewelry, cars, watches, tattoos, real estate, council taxes and services and much more…”
As the bitcoin ecosystem grows, various jurisdictions will continue to compete for the business of bitcoiners and bitcoin companies. This can be seen in examples such as that of Lugano, as well as that of Madeira, Bitcoin Beach and several others. While Bitcoin is still in its infancy, developments like these serve as both a testing battleground and a way to drive further adoption and improvements.
