McDonald’s now accepts bitcoin as a payment method in the Swiss city of Lugano. You can also checkout a Big Mac menu with stablecoin tether, for example.
Lugano, not coincidentally also home to Tether and Bitfinex, is a town in southern Switzerland with a population of 63,000. The city’s administration has ambitions to be at the forefront of crypto adoption.
Bitcoinmagazine.com has dropped a video showing well how easy it is to use bitcoin and the underlying lightning network to settle cheaply and quickly.
🇨🇭 Paying at McDonald's with #Bitcoin in Lugano, Switzerland. pic.twitter.com/8IdcupEEKQ
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) October 3, 2022
Back in March this year, Lugano announced that it was accepting bitcoin and tether as legal tender. With the company Tether Operations Limited, the so-called ‘Plan B’ was launched. As mentioned, Lugano is home to some of the team behind Tether such as cheif technology officer Paulo Ardoino.
The issuer behind this stablecoin has created two funds. First, a fund containing 100 million Swiss francs (~102 million euros) to financially support crypto startups. Second, a fund containing 3 million Swiss francs (€3.06 million) to encourage shops and businesses in the city to start using bitcoin.
Residents can pay their municipal taxes with bitcoin, as can parking fees and tuition fees, among others. Eventually, over 200 shops should start using bitcoin.
McDonald’s, by the way, will not hold any bitcoin received. It will be automatically exchanged into Swiss francs.
