tl;dr: overall a fun place to visit, good weather, cheap eats, but a lot of work needed to become a blockchain nation.
Last week (Apr 24th) there was an announcement that San Mario had a desire to become a blockchain nation. It seems that the initative is backed by the government body for innovation, so I'm making the assumption that the intention is "for real". Whether it comes to fruition is another thing.
It was by coincidence that I already had a vacation planned to visit last weekend (Apr 29th - the day after my birthday). Note that I only visited the country for the day. Why San Marino? Well, I have an aim to visit all the small countries in Europe. I'm curious to understand how they look and how they function. What makes them competitive as nations, if at all? Last year on that same day I visited Liechtenstein so it seemed appropriate to see another country on the list this year.
Travel Planning
I was fairly flexible in my choice of destinations, it didn't have to be San Marino. It could have been somewhere else. One reason for travelling there was the reasonably priced tickets. I greatly enjoyed my weekend away, so if you get a chance to visit then I'd say go for it. FYI, British Airways offer flight + hotel packages at reasonable prices but make most sense when flying out of London Heathrow.
I purchased flight tickets to Bologna and stayed at a hotel on the outskirts. For getting around I hired a car from Hertz and was lucky to receive yet another free (Audi A4 Quattro. Sweet!). Getting the rental car was my means to get to San Marino.
Look and Feel
San Marino is both the name of the country and the central town that sits on Mount Titano. The road towards the town takes you from a fairly flat part of Italy, before the mountain is eventually revealed after entering San Marino. The drive from Bologna was about 2 hours due to heavy traffic (route goes down the east side of Italy), but it should have been 40 minutes quicker.
I only had time to visit the old town of San Marino but I was at least able to see some of the landscape from the top of the mountain. The climate is obviously comparable with Italy, so lots of sunshine and a decent warmth given that it is the end of April. For me it was summer weather! In the early evening there was a brief thunderstorm with heavy showers and some lightning.
Inside the old town the streets are fairly narrow and at times steep. The buildings are mostly stone and look pretty old: giving it a warm rustic appearance. The streets were clean and I don't recall any litter or any undesireable mess. The old town is very busy with tourists though, and as you might expect most of the businesses are either souvenir shops or cafes / restaurants. There was no feeling of being unsafe either.
Living Costs
Service at the cafes and restaurants was good, although that's by a European standard rather than a US standard (overly polite at times). The cost of eating out is fairly cheap with the cheapest pizza (Margarita) at 4.80 EUR. Even pizzas with several toppings are still sub-8 EUR. This is typical for many restaurants and is also cheaper than most places in the UK. Buying coffee is also cheap too: caffe latte (aka latte macchiato) is typically 2.20 EUR. Compare this to 5 - 7 CHF (4.17 - 5.84 EUR) for caffe latte in CryptoValley (Zug, Switzerland).
My overall impression is that it should be cheap to live in San Marino, although I do have to admit that I have no idea what the rents are like.
Switzerland and Liechtenstein, on the other hand, have high costs of living and require high employee salaries. This means it is unattractive for blockchain projects to put all of their employees there, but rather some core teams. As San Marino is far cheaper this could be a major point of attraction.
Can it be a leading blockchain nation?
I developed a positive impression of San Marino and found it to be a very pleasant place, but to be a blockchain nation I think they have a lot of work to do. There is a growing number of competitors now and some have already made headway in becoming a blockchain nation.
Switzerland is doing very well to attract projects and in terms of dollars invested in blockchain projects (it has more per capita than any other nation). The last figures I saw said that the US was marginally ahead in terms of totally number of dollars invested.
Not long after the San Marino announcement the Head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research for Switzerland announced his desire for Switzerland to be a blockchain nation. He presented at the blockchain summit in Zug on April 26th. Switzerland is already number one in many ways and is now planning to do more to cement that position.
That said, San Marino doesn't need to be number one to enjoy a high amount of success. In terms of attracting developers it seems that Switzerland is lagging, while the hotspots are London and Berlin. Perhaps this could be an area for differentiation. Cheap rents and good government support would be attractive for developers.
Switzerland's CryptoValley already has a reasonably well established community of engaged and knowledgeable professionals. This is evident by recalling the names of the projects with a presence there: Ethereum Foundation, Web3 Foundation, Tezos Foundation, Aragon Foundation. The cost of living in Zug is high although the tax situation and legal support are definitely favourable. The winters can also be pretty cold, although that isn't such a big problem for me.
It should be noted that while the local government in Zug appears to be very supportive. The banks in Switzerland are less receptive to opening accounts for blockchain projects. Opening an account for an employee (for personal purposes) is easy, but less so for projects. I'm not saying it is impossible, but rather it is tricky. The situation is unsurprising given the greater scrutiny that Swiss banks are under from the US government.
Word on the street is that Liechtenstein has a number of smaller banks who are more willing to take the risk and open accounts for blockchain projects. For San Marino to be a viable option it needs banks that are receptive to blockchain projects.
What makes San Marino attractive already?
- Low cost of living
- Good weather
- Local government's intention to support blockchain
What could make it more attractive in the future?
- Supporting legislation and / or legal sandboxing.
- Local lawyers to take a keen interest in supporting the industry.
- Low tax / tax exemption for X years.
- Banks willing to have blockchain projects as clients (this is a necessity).
- Favourable rents could help attract development teams.
Challenges
- A number of other jurisdictions are competing for the same business.
- The need to build a community of engaged and knowledgeable professionals (as in Zug).
I posted a couple of extra pictures on Instagram and created a thread on Twitter. Feel free to drop by and say 'hi'.
Twitter thread: Link
Disclaimer: This article is all my own work. None of the opinions expressed in this blog are that of a past, present, or future employer.