Bitcoin in Russia. Will cryptocurrencies have a future in Russia?

A bill "On digital financial assets" has been submitted to the State Duma of the Russian Federation, which proposes a number of steps to regulation of the cryptocurrency market in Russia. For example, tokens and cryptocurrencies receive the status of property, certain restrictions are introduced for investors, and cryptocurrency miners will have to register as entrepreneurs. At the same time, the Ministry of Finance clearly states that the circulation of "money surrogates," by which digital assets are meant, will be punishable by up to four years in prison.

How will the attempt to introduce cryptocurrencies in Russia into the legal field - an example of adequate regulation or an excuse for cryptocurrencies to flee the Russian Federation?

Has the attitude toward crypto changed in Russia?

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Blockchain technology can be argued endlessly, but even the most skeptical admit that it has taken a strong enough position in our lives. For about a year now, Russia has been discussing a bill that would create the basis for a mechanism to regulate the cryptocurrency market.

At the same time, if we track the position of the official authorities during this period, we can clearly see how it has changed. If at first there was a misunderstanding, expressed, roughly speaking, in the approach of "take and ban", now there is more and more talk about developing cryptorubleThe government is becoming increasingly loyal to digital assets, and blockchain is being used in many industries.

The result of the change in attitude to crypto is the already mentioned bill, which is being considered not only in the State Duma, but also in the Bank of Russia and the Ministry of Finance.

Difficulties in drafting the bill

Immediately it should be understood that the bill "On digital financial assets" is very far from ideal and, in fact, is a draft on which you still need to work and work.

There are a lot of controversial issues. For example, as you already know, it is not all tokens perform a financial function, so the term "cryptocurrency" can hardly be applied to them. And this is not the only example.

In turn, supporters of the cryptocurrency world have high hopes for the bill, because the emergence of a mechanism for legal regulation will give them the opportunity to work legally in the digital asset market and attract institutional investors to it.

The authors of the bill are between two fires:

  • On the one hand, rather stringent measures are needed, which will make it possible to reduce the risks for users and limit the activities of fraudsters;
  • on the other hand, it is necessary to take into account the request of the authorities to make the law on cryptocurrencies as simple as possible.

Nevertheless, many analysts believe that the current version of the Digital Financial Assets Bill is a good basis for further work.

Controversial moments of cryptocurrency in Russia

A number of provisions of the bill are heavily criticized by the crypto-community.

For example, the bill proposes restrictions for Russian investors along with full loyalty for foreign investors. If this is implemented, ICO market in the Russian Federation would simply disappear, forcing people to look for crowdsale opportunities abroad.

Mining is also a controversial point. Miners will be obliged to register as a business entity with all the tax consequences. At the moment, cryptocurrency miners are already paying VAT, electricity costs for equipment, rent of premises - and these are not small amounts of money. The increased costs for miners in the form of tax payments are unlikely to become an incentive for mining at best, and at worst, will make it economically unprofitable.

The status of operators whose functions include the exchange of cryptocurrencies is also unclear. As a consequence, there will be additional difficulties in registration and verification at these services. The bureaucratic component in the authorities is still strong, and if the bill transfers it to the cryptocurrency market, no adequate cryptocurrency exchanges, exchangers and other services of this kind will be out of the question.

As for criminal responsibility, there is also a lot of uncertainty - terminology, terms, and so on. There is a lot of work to be done in this area, but one thing is certain. penalties for violations of digital assets will be, and will be severe.

What happens next?

At the moment, even in states that have already adopted laws to regulate cryptocurrencies, there are still certain problems. Even Belarus, which declares maximum loyalty to digital assets, has not yet become a "digital paradise" for the cryptocurrency community.

So now it is very important to study the positive and negative experiences of attempts to regulate cryptocurrencies in other states, which will make it possible to create a really working law and an adequate mechanism of regulation of digital assets.

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