
I recently had the pleasure of visiting the lovely mountain town of Lugano, Switzerland, whose appeal lies in that it is basically Italy but administered by the Swiss. That’s according to Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, one of the prime backers of Plan B, a Bitcoin conference where I hosted a discussion on the growing trend of nation states embracing the original cryptocurrency.
The event had an upbeat vibe—not surprising since everyone there worshipped Bitcoin—but it was also clear there was trouble in paradise. It turns out there is a growing schism over Bitcoin’s codebase, and whether it should be modified to permit the blockchain to include more non-financial data.