The Swiss city of Lugano first launched its Plan ₿ (to become the ‘European Bitcoin Capital’) in March 2022, with the launch of an initiative to get merchants in the city to accept cryptocurrency payments (in Bitcoin, Tether and its native LVGA token).
Residents are rewarded with 10% cashback on their crypto payments through the MyLugano app, and the scheme attracted some big-name companies to sign up, including the local McDonalds branch, which even allows users to pay for their Big Macs using crypto.
A second strand of the ‘Plan’ was to promote blockchain solutions to businesses in the region, with education, grants, support, and free onboarding and discounted use of its 3Achain network.
The scheme has boasted Tether and Polygon as partners from the start, with Polygon providing certain payment rails for transactions. However, this week saw the collaboration between Polygon and Plan ₿ step up to the next level as the Polygon ecosystem was integrated directly into the MyLugano app.
The app now provides access to a multichain non-custodial wallet for managing cryptocurrencies outside of the initial scheme. Several tokens have so far been integrated into the ‘Assets’ section, which Lugano says is “designed primarily for more experienced users,” with the potential for further tokens to be added in the future.
It also gives users access to the rapidly growing Web3 ecosystem and decentralized applications (dApps) on the Polygon network.
So far over 30,000 users have accessed the LVGA loyalty program through the app, representing almost half of the city’s population. These users will now have access to a full multichain wallet and the wonderful worlds of Web3 and DeFi through the familiar interface that they have already been using.
This might just represent the perfect way to ease the general public into recognizing the full potential of what crypto and blockchain have to offer. It will be interesting to Observe how many of the participants dive deeper into the rabbit hole and use the new features. Certainly, one would expect a reasonable proportion of people to at least have a closer look to find out what it is all about.
If successful then this might prove to be a good model to roll out on a wider basis, increasing adoption rates around the globe.
In addition to the Polygon integration, MyLugano also launched an NFT collection based on work by the artist Yuri Catania. For the event, Catania created a 40-metre-long artwork on the wall of the Palazzo dei Congressi with the help of several hundred volunteers.
The piece, created using over 2,000 paper flowers, is designed to disappear over time. However, the work will live on as a collection of signed NFTs, distributed on the Polygon network to all those who contributed to its creation.
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