A Swiss municipality is planning to integrate Bitcoin payments into its services as part of a pilot project.
Located in the city of Zug, which happens to be the headquarter of many Bitcoin companies, the municipality wants to observe people’s response to Bitcoin before ruling out a full-fledged adoption plan. The pilot project, therefore, has limited the use of Bitcoin in public services to only 200 Swiss Franc. The limit is reported to stay until the end of this year.
Dolfi Müller, the Mayor of Zug, told the local newspapers that his bench is welcoming new finance technologies to come and exchange ideas with the city. He stated:
“We express our openness to new technology by expressing our own tendencies. And we will invite FinTech companies in the region to exchange ideas with the city. Our goal is to meet their needs more accurately for optimal development of our thriving economic environment.”
Zug meanwhile has already become the operating hub of many Bitcoin companies, including Xapo, Ethereum, ShapeShift, Monetas, and others. The city’s easy and flexible fiscal policies have strongly attracted investments from many FinTech houses, for it has a fairly low tax rate compared to its international counterparts, and promises more growth in a secure and law-abiding environment.
This subsequently has helped the city to earn the title of “CryptoValley Zug”.
Therefore, the decision of Zug’s municipal to accept Bitcoin payments doesn’t strike as surprising as it would been in case of some other city. The pilot project is scheduled to conclude by the end of 2016, and if the results are favorable, Zug will effectively integrate digital currency payments for a wide range of municipal services, without restrictions.
The city will meanwhile accept Bitcoin for train tickets. The maximum billing, as stated above, allowed is 200 Swiss Franc.
Source: CryptoValley Zug
