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Lamassu Industries AG of Lucerne, the company that produces ATM Bitcoin, has been looking for a suitable home for some time. After several banks have refused, the builder moved to Lucerne, Switzerland. And it turned out to be a great decision.
"For years we looked for a house to call our own and we finally found it in the majestic Swiss canton of Lucerne," Zach Harvey, co-founder of Lamassu who was renamed Lamassu Industries AG of Lucerne, writes.
In his post medium, he noted that many interesting initiatives related to the blockchain took place in Switzerland. Therefore, "the Open Source Bitcoin and Lightning Network nodes are hacked together, the hardware portfolios are designed and implemented". And that's not all. Harvey emphasizes that Switzerland is carefully creating a regulatory framework on cryptocurrency. It also hosts world-class meetups and events as well as distributing numerous Bitcoin ATMs.
As the Crypto valley in Switzerland is alive and well, Lamassu decided to settle there:
The cryptomat industry (also known as Bitcoin ATMs) is booming and as we grow up, we want to be in a place where the rules are well defined and regulators are pro-innovation.
He goes on to explain that the company has faced multiple struggles. In fact, it has been without a bank for over a year: at least 15 banks have rejected their applications. Reasoning? Because they produce BTC ATMs. Even online payment processing companies like Stripe have refused to cooperate. The explanation did not differ significantly. The company did not like that the Lamassu site contained the word "Bitcoin".
However, in Switzerland things are different. Lamassu has already opened an account with a local bank "who is fully aware of our business model and happy to have us on board." And Harvey promises to install a cryptomat soon in his headquarters. Most likely its customers will be able to recover Bitcoin, Zcash, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Dash. According to the official website of Lamassu, they currently only support these tokens.
Some prefer innovation
The choice of the village of Lamassu is certainly not a surprise. Switzerland is continuously embracing multiple cryptographic and blockchain initiatives. This year launched the first cryptocurrency ETF and tested blockchain-based voting in some of its cantons, including Zug, where the famous Crypto Valley is located. When some of the scrambled companies left the country last year, the authorities reacted immediately. The logic was clear: to maintain innovation and the money segment within the country, without losing it.
Other countries are using similar logic. Malta, for example, has been dubbed "island blockchain" because of its favorable approach to the crypt and the blockchain. As a result, the Coinbase trading giant, which recently transferred an unprecedented $ 5 billion, created a bank account there. Liechtenstein and Estonia also host multiple cryptographic companies. In particular, Liechtenstein has granted a commercial license to the Liechtenstein Cryptoassets Exchange. Estonia has taken another step forward: the country is adopting the blockchain at all levels.
This is an extraordinarily different approach to countries like the United States – Harvey's homeland. Therefore, the Security and Trade Commission is still skeptical about the introduction of an ETF fund, while economists such as Nouriel Roubini attack crypts and blockchains in Congress.
