Lugano Accelerates Financial Innovation with SwissLedger and Swiss Digital Key

The City of Lugano presented today at Villa Ciani, during the Beyond Blockchain event, SwissLedger—the evolution of the 3Achain technology—and Swiss Digital Key, an initiative aiming to foster the development of innovative FinTech solutions. The event brought together institutions, businesses, and universities to outline the future of digital finance and Lugano’s strategic role in this landscape. During the meeting, participants discussed innovative applications of blockchain in the business, banking, and financial sectors, with the presence of representatives from cantonal and federal institutions.

Why does Lugano continue to invest in blockchain?

Since 2021, 3Achain has been the technology supporting the LVGA, Lugano’s digital currency. Its decentralized infrastructure is backed by numerous companies, allowing the 500 partner businesses in the MyLugano network and over 40,000 users to carry out financial transactions securely and without transaction fees. More than 30 companies support the network by hosting validator nodes and developing concrete applications in various fields, such as digital certification, digital art, the legal sector, and asset tokenization. Now, with the evolution of 3Achain into SwissLedger, Lugano is taking another step forward: becoming the national reference distributed ledger through secure, interoperable infrastructure open to innovation.

SwissLedger: an institutional blockchain serving finance

SwissLedger is an institutional blockchain adopting a Proof of Authority (PoA) consensus model, ensuring security, scalability, and strong resilience against cyberattacks. Its main applications include:

• Document digitalization and notarization: Secure recording of contracts and official documents.
• Asset tokenization: Digital representation of financial, real estate, and artistic assets.
• Advanced security: Data protection with high cryptographic standards.
• Interoperability: Integration with financial institutions and existing infrastructures.

Companies that become SwissLedger partners contribute their computing power to maintain the network and gain free access to the technology. They can use it to experiment with and develop innovative services and applications.

Swiss Digital Key: a collaborative network to promote financial innovation

In parallel with the launch of SwissLedger, Lugano introduces Swiss Digital Key, an initiative designed to:

• Provide a digital identity and secure electronic signature for contracts and banking services.
• Foster Open Banking by connecting financial institutions and fintech companies.
• Create a regulatory sandbox to test financial innovations in a protected environment.
• Automate banking and business processes through smart contracts.

Swiss Digital Key is a public-private initiative based in Lugano, created to test and develop advanced solutions specifically tailored to the banking sector. This project aims to modernize financial services by leveraging blockchain technology to enhance security, transparency, and regulatory compliance.

New collaborations and tangible use cases

The SwissLedger ecosystem is expanding with new notable partners, including the Canton of Ticino, Var Group, Bitcoin Suisse, OFFICINEBIT, Avaloq, HCLTech Confinale Wealth Solutions, and UBQ. In addition, the City has signed two Letters of Intent (LOI):

• With technology partners (Avaloq, HCLTech Confinale Wealth Solutions, UBQ, Noku) to develop advanced blockchain solutions.
• With academic institutions (SUPSI and USI) to promote education, research, and joint projects.
   

Meanwhile, the SwissLedger ecosystem is growing with new practical applications in various sectors:

• OFFICINEBIT with Artchain: Digital certification of artworks to ensure authenticity and transparency.
• Logol with Elle.lawyer: A blockchain-based legal platform for notarization and timestamp certification.
• Palo Alto with Connect2Bank: A solution for securely managing sensitive information in the banking sector.

Lugano, a hub for financial innovation

After celebrating last week the third anniversary of the Plan ₿ project in the new coworking space opened in the city center at the end of 2024, Lugano is increasingly confirming its status as a benchmark in adopting emerging technologies. Thanks to an ecosystem open to experimentation and to public-private collaboration, the city continues to innovate. With SwissLedger and Swiss Digital Key, Lugano strengthens its role as an international hub of digital finance, helping position Switzerland among the global leaders in the FinTech sector.

Mayor Michele Foletti stated: “Lugano continues to invest decisively in emerging technologies to create an environment conducive to innovation and entrepreneurship. With SwissLedger and Swiss Digital Key, we are making a concrete contribution to the digital transformation of finance, positioning our city as a development model for the sector.”

Subscribe to the City of Lugano's WhatsApp channel

Subscribe and share with your contacts the link to the WhatsApp channel of the City of Lugano, where you can receive public utility news, alerts, and updates on city initiatives for citizens and businesses: www.lugano.ch/whatsapp