Stablecoins are the perfect Trojan horse for Bitcoin, says Tether CTO – Cointelegraph

As one of a number of Cointelegraph representatives attending the Paris Blockchain Week Summit (PBWS) at the historic Palais Brongniart a neoclassical building that had been the headquarters for the Parisian stock exchange from 1826 to 1987 European news reporter Joe Hall sat down for an in-depth interview with the chief technology officer of Bitfinex and Tether, Paolo Ardoino.

Previously ranked 88th in Cointelegraphs prestigious Top 100 2021 for his influential impact on the growth of the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, Ardoino spoke on an array of topics, including the adoption of Bitcoin and Tether de facto legal tenders in the Swiss city of Lugano, the scalability concerns of popular blockchain networks and the potential for new countries to accept Bitcoin in the future.

In early March, the Swiss city ofLugano which is also a major financial hub in Switzerland formed a collaborative partnership with stablecoin operator Tether to launch a 3 million Swiss franc initiativedesigned to encourage the adoption of blockchain technologies and the use of digital assets.

Utilizing Bitcoin (BTC), Tether (USDT) and the native citizen loyalty token, LVGA Points, the assets can be transacted by locals for activities such as taxation and purchasing of public goodsand services.

In addition, the project has also pledged to create educational scholarship programs within the three universities in Lugano, a blockchain summer camp and a maximum-valued 100 million Swiss franc ($107.2 million) pot to foster the growth of blockchain start-ups:

Ardoino noted that these companies relocated their operations from both within Switzerland as well as from countries such as India and Singapore. He stated that their intention is to "use these few startups as a template to pave the path for others in the future.

Related: Paris Blockchain Week, day 1: Latest updates from the Cointelegraph team on the ground

Referencing his tweeted picture of a Lugano newspaper article with the headline Citt affamata di bitcoin, which means city hungry for Bitcoin, Ardoino said that stablecoins are the perfect Trojan horse for Bitcoin in that they can serve as the initial mechanism for adoption before exploration into more complex, regulatory-stringent cryptocurrencies.

When questioned about the possibilities of new European countries adopting Bitcoin,Ardoino said that "we're looking at different other jurisdictions," and that some people within "the parliament are interested to talk to us as they would like to educate themselves to create a case for internal adoption."

In saying this, he was keen to stress the importance that the vision of wide-scale Bitcoin adoption throughout Europe would not be achieved overnight but through a bottom-up, community-first approach, such as that witnessed in Lugano.

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Stablecoins are the perfect Trojan horse for Bitcoin, says Tether CTO - Cointelegraph