City of Lugano integrates Polygon into its crypto payment system

The city of Lugano, the economic capital of Italian-speaking southern Switzerland, will integrate the Polygon proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol into its crypto-friendly payment app, MyLugano. 

According to the announcement on Polygon Labs’ website from Nov. 22, the updated version of MyLugano features a multichain digital wallet for personal custody. The press release mentions “several tokens” already integrated into this app section and the plans to add more.

The network provider for tens of thousands of decentralized applications with $5 billion in secured assets, Polygon has been a partner of the Swiss city since at least 2022. At the time, it became an infrastructure partner for the city’s stablecoin, LVGA.

According to the statement, MyLugano is also launching a new nonfungible token collection dedicated to the work of artist Yuri Catania. This is an NFT version of a 40-meter-long, 8-meter-high work on the wall of the Palazzo dei Congressi. The art piece will be tokenized on the Polygon network.

Related: Polygon gas fees spike 1,000% amid Ordinals-inspired token craze

Lugano is one of the world’s leaders in crypto adoption. The MyLugano app, built in collaboration with stablecoin issuer Tether, serves 30,000 users, or almost half of the city population, helping them to pay local small and medium-sized traders in digital currencies.

In March 2022, Lugano established a Center of Excellence for Blockchain Adoption in partnership with Tether to “become a major European blockchain hub.” The city administration plans to enable citizens and companies to pay cryptocurrency taxes soon. The ultimate goal is to accept crypto for payment of all goods and services, similar to fiat currency.

Despite its best efforts, Lugano won’t be the first Swiss city to allow for paying taxes in crypto, with the canton of Zug and the city of Zermatt already enabling it.

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