The City of Lugano Card, created in 2002 to access discounts and benefits, is gradually being replaced by the new MyLugano Card. Do you still have an old generation physical Lugano Card? Go to the create an account section within the App to see how to digitise it in a few simple steps!

MyLugano is a digital ecosystem based on innovative blockchain technology that allows you to access discounts and benefits and to obtain LVGA when purchasing at city’s commercial activities affiliated to the circuit. The MyLugano App allows you to obtain the MyLugano Card to which is associated an electronic wallet that allows you to manage payments and receive cashback in LVGA, the token of the City of Lugano.

The Mylugano App is the official platform of the City of Lugano that promotes local shopping. Through the App you can access discounts offered by affiliated businesses, you can pay in LVGA and earn LVGA with every purchase thanks to cashback. Through the App you can buy tickets and admissions to events and public facilities in the city and navigate an interactive map to find all the partners affiliated with the circuit.

LVGAs are the City of Lugano’s payment tokens based on blockchain technology. They represent an alternative form of digital payment within the MyLugano circuit and their function is to incentivise local spending in affiliated businesses. LVGAs can be purchased within the MyLugano App via credit card or obtained through cashback during your purchases and spent to purchase goods and services within affiliated shops. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, LVGAs are not subject to value fluctuations (their value is in fact pegged to that of the Swiss Franc with a fixed exchange rate of 100 LVGA = 1 CHF) and cannot be exchanged for other currencies.

Cashback means getting money back in exchange for purchases made. Within the MyLugano circuit, cashback in LVGA replaces the traditional discount. This means that for every purchase made within the circuit you receive a credit in LVGA. The cashback is 10% of the purchase price for holders of a MyLugano Card and 5% for holders of a MyLugano Pass. The cashback is credited by the merchant directly in the shop by scanning a QR code generated by the app.

The MyLugano Card is the digital evolution of the Lugano Card born in 2002. It allows access to discounts and offers in more than 200 businesses affiliated to the MyLugano circuit. By activating your card within the MyLugano App you can access discounts and get LVGA with your purchases in the city. There are two MyLugano cards:

The MyLugano Card (red card) is intended for residents in the municipality of Lugano and allows you to accumulate and spend LVGAs while benefiting from a standard 10% discount in the form of cashback.

 The MyLugano Pass (blu card) is intended for non-resident visitors and allows them to accumulate and spend LVGAs while benefiting from a standard 5% discount.

In order to allow a smooth transition from the physical to the digital card, it is temporarily still possible to obtain a physical card with a QR code that allows you to accumulate and spend LVGA. To obtain this card, you must go to one of our City Info Points and provide the necessary documentation.

Just like a real wallet but electronic. It allows you to store all your digital credentials to access, spend and transfer bitcoins or other altcoins. There are three types of wallets: desktop, smartphone and web wallet. The wallet manages the private keys that allow transactions to be signed. Each bitcoin wallet can show you the total balance of all the bitcoins it controls and allows you to pay precise amounts to a specific person, or business, like a real wallet.

It is a public register or ‘ledger’ of all transactions in a digital currency. In IT terms, it can be defined as a database distributed over every node that is part of the network and exploiting peer-to-peer technology.

It is thus a distributed communication channel (a blockchain of information) that enables the transfer of digital value or property with the guarantee that no third party can damage or modify the transactions to take advantage of them.

The blockchain is made of blocks that store groups of valid transactions, correlated by a time marker (timestamp). Each block includes the hash of the previous block, linking the blocks together. The linked blocks form a chain, with each additional block reinforcing the previous ones. The original definition was written by Satoshi Nakamoto and found in bitcoin’s source code.

3Achain is the institutional blockchain platform promoted by the City of Lugano in collaboration with important public partners that serves as the technological infrastructure for LVGAs. To learn more visit the project website: www.3achain.org

A currency or medium of exchange, which uses cryptography to protect transactions and control the creation of new units.

A peer-to-peer payment system and a digital, decentralised, open-source currency, powered by its users and with no central authority or intermediaries. By convention, the word ‘bitcoin’, written with a capital initial, is used to refer to the technology of payment and information recording, while the word ‘bitcoin’, written in lower case, refers to the digital currency.