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The Plan ₿ Forum celebrates its first anniversary
In its meteoric rise, the cryptocurrency has found several footholds around the world. Dubai, Singapore, Miami, and El Salvador all have vibrant crypto communities. Entrepreneurs flock from around the world to build the next generation of start-ups. But Europe has no hubs, no places for crypto believers to gather.
Tether has always been committed to the global advancement of Bitcoin and technology, resulting in a free and open monetary system. Tether supports these values by driving USDt adoption in emerging markets rather than the US, promoting Bitcoin and Bitcoin education, and as of last year through its Plan ₿ forum with the city of Lugano.
The goal of the Plan ₿ initiative is to create a European cryptocurrency hub in Lugano. While other cities and regions in Europe pay lip service to cryptocurrencies, they have yet to really integrate the benefits that cryptocurrencies offer into the real life of their communities.
With the announcement of the initiative, Lugano began accepting Bitcoin, Tether and the city’s own LVGA token as payment for taxes, parking tickets, public services and school fees. The announcement also included a CHF 100 million fund to accelerate crypto startups in Lugano, and a CHF 3 million fund to assist Lugano shops and businesses in adopting cryptocurrencies.
Plan ₿ accelerates Lugano's economic development, trains the next generation of blockchain-savvy students and workers, accelerates sustainable Bitcoin mining, and hosts the Plan ₿ Forum, which is fast becoming Europe's premier Bitcoin forum and free meeting.
Citizens of Lugano are already using crypto in their daily lives, including with the LVGA token, Lugano's official token. Using this token, citizens of Lugano can earn and save money when shopping in their local neighbourhood. Citizens of Lugano do this using the MyLugano app, which also supports Bitcoin and Tether.
The first year of Plan ₿ has seen a number of important milestones as the European Blockchain Hub vision takes shape.
SDX Issues CHF 100 Million Municipal Bonds
Lugano issued a 6-year CHF 100 million bond on the blockchain of the regulated SDX exchange. This is the first municipal bond ever issued on a blockchain. Participants can own and trade bonds directly on the SDX blockchain or through the SIX traditional exchange.
Issuance of Lugano's municipal bonds using blockchain infrastructure, providing greater transparency and accessibility to the city and debt holders.
More than 150 Plan ₿ merchants accept BTC, USDT, LVGA payments
In the first year of Plan ₿, more than 150 merchants (including McDonald's) started accepting Bitcoin, USD₮ and the Lugano token LVGA. Citizens can now easily pay in USD₮, Bitcoin Lightning, and LVGA using their wallets. By the end of 2023, the Plan ₿ Foundation aims to enable over 2,500 merchants to accept Bitcoin, Tether, and LVGA.
Lugano municipal services in cryptocurrency
In conjunction with the Plan ₿ initiative, Lugano started accepting crypto payments for municipal services. This creates a seamless circular economy where merchants who start accepting cryptocurrency payments do not need to sell that cryptocurrency to pay for their standard municipal services. Tether sees the cryptocurrency circular economy as an important step towards global adoption.
Plan ₿ Summer School
Tether hosted the inaugural session of the Plan ₿ Summer School, bringing 86 students from 26 countries to Lugano to learn from world-class experts and educators including Adam Back and Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino, and to learn from hope 500 bursaries were awarded to students continuing their education in blockchain technology.
Plan ₿ job fair
Tether hosts the Plan ₿ Career Fair to connect top blockchain companies with talent trying to break into the field. This is also an opportunity for Plan ₿ Summer School students to connect with potential employers.
Plan ₿ Forum
Tether launches Plan ₿ Forum, a conference focused on Bitcoin and advancing freedom around the world. More than 1,500 people flew from all over the world to participate in the first Plan ₿ Forum. During the forum, attendees completed more than 1,000 transactions via Bitcoin's Lightning Network, close to 130 USD₮ transactions and 200 LVGA transactions.
At the conference, El Salvador announced the El Salvador Digital Chamber, which Tether is helping to support, to promote the adoption of blockchain and digital assets across the country.
World Economic Forum and Plan ₿
Tether brought Plan ₿ to the Davos World Economic Forum to demonstrate the core value behind Plan ₿ - global financial freedom. Tether also hosted a Bitcoin Pizza Day event at the World Economic Forum.
The world is currently navigating between two competing visions of financial freedom: top-down control through CBDCs and global financial freedom through open money networks. Tether will continue to advocate for technologies that advance financial freedom worldwide.
Sustainable Bitcoin Mining Tether supports the development of a Bitcoin mining project in Lugano based on renewable and sustainable energy. This is an economic opportunity and an energy opportunity for Lugano, while proving to the world that Bitcoin mining can have a positive impact on the environment and our economy at the same time.
“The idea for Plan ₿ started as a dream. What if there was a city that could lead Europe, and one day even the world, towards full financial democratization and cryptocurrency adoption?” said Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Tether.
To mark the success of the first year, Tether and the City of Lugano announced the launch of the Plan ₿ Business Center to explore the potential of blockchain technology for business, adoption and long-term use of cryptocurrencies. The center will house more than 300 blockchain experts and enthusiasts. As a global base in Lugano, it aims to attract talent and encourage networking and knowledge sharing. The center will also host casual spaces for gatherings and workshops to further promote education and development.
Tether will also continue its Plan ₿ Summer School program with two sessions in Spring and Summer 2023. Tether will continue its efforts to drive education and the adoption of open currency protocols around the world.
https://tether.to/en/one-year-of-plan-b/
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More outdated allegations from The Wall Street Journal
Tether continues to be the target of outdated, inaccurate and misleading reports and allegations from The Wall Street Journal, with its latest reporting suggesting that Tether operates outside of regulatory boundaries, in line with the stringent financial regulations Tether operates under and engages with law enforcement around the world on a near-daily basis. Collaborative facts collide. Tether regularly cooperates with the U.S. Department of Justice and other top U.S. agencies, but does not serve U.S. clients.
Tether has long been a popular target for misleading reporting by The Wall Street Journal and other traditional media outlets. As high-profile crypto crises such as FTX, Celsius, and Genesis have revealed, they pay little attention to what is the right target.
From January 1, 2021 to January 1, 2022, The Wall Street Journal published 84 articles about or mentioning Tether, the vast majority of which were negative. During the same period, the Wall Street Journal published 28 articles about or mentioning FTX, nearly all of them positive.
The goal of media and investigative reporting should be to identify events of significant public interest, ideally before they occur. But let's see how the year goes?
Many start-ups backed by mainstream media such as the Wall Street Journal in 2022 have been validated as one of the largest financial failures in history and resulted in catastrophic financial losses for countless users and investors. Tether, on the other hand, is continuing to deliver on its commitment to increase transparency, work with regulators, and adjust reserves (Tether has completely reduced all commercial paper holdings to zero in 2022).
Many of these things are things Tether's critics (including the Wall Street Journal) have suggested Tether will never be able to do. However, instead of acknowledging the fact that Tether has been able to continually respond to allegations through direct action, traditional media continues to report misleading news.
Even in the face of one of the largest volatility events the industry has ever seen, Tether has continued to perform according to the expectations of its users. At the height of the Terra Luna crash, Tether was able to redeem over 10% of USD₮, equivalent to $7 billion, within 48 hours. From market peaks to troughs, Tether processed nearly $20 billion in redemptions. Historically, even the pressure of bank failure is much smaller than Tether.
Contrary to what the WSJ claims, Tether has actually proven time and time again that it is a committed partner to law enforcement around the world and has built and maintained a world-class compliance program.
Like all traditional financial institutions, Tether protects against money laundering, terrorist financing, nuclear proliferation and sanctions risks through policies and procedures designed to limit criminals' access to the Tether platform.
In fact, Tether currently has less than 1,000 active users and extremely strict KYC/AML standards, at least following Bank Secrecy Act standards, because Tether Limited is a FinCEN registered MSB. As a result, Tether is able to conduct enhanced due diligence on all customers to understand the source of funds deposited into the platform and the purpose of the relationship. Because Tether screens for these different risks, each client receives a higher degree of scrutiny than most traditional financial institutions. Additionally, any suspicious activity is reported by Tether Limited and Tether International Limited to regulatory agencies such as FinCEN or BVI FIA.
As part of our commitment to cooperation, transparency, and accountability, Tether is also a proud partner of global law enforcement and regularly engages in open dialogue with global law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice. Tether conducts blockchain sanctions screening to ensure its customers' funds are not linked to high-risk wallets.
Risk mitigation strategies like these are what a primary market should be, but Tether is doing much more than that, by voluntarily working with law enforcement agencies around the world to freeze criminal wallets, help victims recover applicable funds, and discourage criminals from using Tether Tokens come to be used for criminal purposes around the world.
While much of Tether's assistance in this area remains private, we have assisted law enforcement in over 160 investigations across four continents over the years and currently have approximately $400 million frozen as a result of various investigations. In August 2021, Tether first froze and then returned approximately $33 million in Tether tokens to its legal owners, which did receive public attention as stolen from the decentralized financial platform Poly Network.
Tether is also working with IHOPE to combat child trafficking businesses, and Tether is keen to support preventing cryptocurrencies from being used as a tool to facilitate child trafficking.
“Working with law enforcement, lawmakers and standard-setting bodies around the world, Tether is committed to being a positive force in the crypto space by highlighting the risks of child exploitation and helping to organize sound risk mitigation controls in the cryptocurrency industry. We are particularly interested in improving The ability of cryptocurrency businesses to identify transfers related to the online CSAM marketplace and report them to the authorities." - Tether's CTO Paolo Ardoino.
Biased coverage by traditional media such as The Wall Street Journal will not stop Tether from continuing to build a global financial infrastructure that will bring real benefits to people in emerging markets. Tether will continue to be used by more individuals and businesses around the world to satisfy financial needs that Wall Street has long abandoned.
Tether continues to provide real financial solutions to people in emerging regional markets such as Brazil, Lebanon, Turkey, Myanmar, Argentina, and more.
Like the nearly unanimously positive coverage of many players (FTX among them) in the Wall Street Journal, and almost always criticizing Tether, it raises an interesting question - what if a US VC-funded fintech What will happen to Tether's achievements?
Would the Wall Street Journal coverage have been different if Tether had been an exciting startup in Silicon Valley funded by Wall Street partners?
In the cryptocurrency industry, this poor coverage of not separating valid signal from invalid noise makes the Wall Street Journal appear to be in the same situation as the 2018 allegations.
https://tether.to/en/more-outdated-allegations-from-the-wsj/
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Tether CTO: Tether has zero exposure to Silicon Valley Bank
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