Plan B for crypto payments

by · November 2, 2022

Over the weekend, thousands of bitcoiners and crypto enthusiasts descended on the small, sleepy Swiss town of Lugano. More specifically, they piled into a McDonald’s restaurant.

Located on Lake Lugano, Mcdonald’s Lugano received countless visits from Bitcoiners eager to exchange Satoshis (the smallest denomination of a Bitcoin) for Big Macs, McFlurrys and coffee.

But why were European crypto enthusiasts happy to pay in Bitcoin (BTC) with one of the world’s most recognizable brands? Well, first to demonstrate the Lightning Network, a Layer-2 technology built on top of Bitcoin. But also to live up to Satoshi Nakamoto’s promise that Bitcoin is actually an electronic cash system.

The entire McDonald’s team had been trained and brought onto the Bitcoin network just days before the major European Bitcoin and blockchain conference, Plan B Forum, Tether Chief Technology Officer Paolo Ardoino told Cointelegraph.

The Italian ex-pat gave Cointelegraph an overview of Bitcoin and crypto adoption in Lugano, joking that the practical process of educating merchants on how to accept crypto can be time-consuming: “At McDonald’s we spend about a week because they have a lot of people who works there.”

Ardoino’s company, Tether, orchestrated a broad plan for the financial capital of Italian-speaking Switzerland to adopt Bitcoin and crypto. What began as a plan for citizens to pay their taxes in crypto has turned into a summer school called Plan B, a conference called Plan B Forum and the adoption of crypto traders – led by McDonald’s.

Cointelegraph researched Bitcoin and crypto commerce adoption to better understand how countries, regions—or in this case—cities can adopt crypto in a meaningful way. For example, is it possible to live off crypto in Lugano?

Over 60 merchants accept crypto in Lugano. Source: PlanB

Ardoino explained that over the past few months, the Plan B team has brought over 60 merchants to accept crypto, but the growth in merchants and crypto payments is really starting to pick up:

“Initially when we had 30 merchants before we reached 600 hundred [crypto] transactions. And in the last five days since, we had 600 transactions.”

The team at Plan B intends to reach 1,000 merchants accepting crypto by Q2 2022. “We have a business team that will run around town,” Ardoino explained. The team brings more and more sellers and ensures that Lugano becomes the best place to use crypto in Europe.

Unlike El Salvador’s top-down approach to Bitcoin, where the president announced Bitcoin as legal tender and there was reportedly little hands-on educational assistance for people on the ground, Plan B has the luxury of a team of onboarding staff.

Tether and Plan B actually have the resources to guide merchants through the crypto onboarding process. Additionally, they can receive feedback from sellers and update their systems accordingly, Ardoino shared:

“But the problem is also the maintenance. We install [the Point of Sale solutions] and then we have people who periodically check in and say, okay, you’re having problems, get feedback and so on because you know, otherwise you’ll never work.”

As usual, on the first day of the Plan B conference, the on-site pizzeria run by Mauro had problems with the payment terminal. The Plan B team soon rectified the situation. At Cointelegraph’s hotel, the receptionist said upon arrival that they would accept crypto payments from the next day. Cointelegraph endured paying in fiat for a whole day, before, as promised, the hotel’s PoS solution was put into use.

Plan B payment terminal. Source: PlanB

All Plan B merchants accept payments over the colorful payment terminal in the LVGA token, Bitcoin Lightning and Tether (USDT). LVGA is a stablecoin proxy for Swiss francs and is available to local residents.

Related: Pro-crypto city of Lugano and El Salvador sign economic agreement based on adoption

The trading partnership is between GoCrypto, a crypto payment company, and Tether. Curiously, Ardoino told Cointelegraph that so far not a single merchant has turned down the option to accept crypto. The experience is a stark contrast to the adoption of crypto traders in the UK, for example. Arduino explained:

“If your neighbor has it, and he starts getting more people to go around and pay, you know, people can get over their biases. When it comes to money; people are more likely to get over their biases.”

Cointelegraph succeeded in making a living from crypto during its stay in the Swiss city, with one exception. Not a single pharmacy accepts crypto (yet), so if you’re planning a visit to Lugano, don’t forget your toothbrush.