We are forbidden to even talk about cryptocurrency?

The other day, another government agency, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, voiced its position on cryptocurrency, in particular about Bitcoin.

“The unresolved cryptocurrency status makes transactions with them quite risky, and in the event of any losses, Bitcoin holders are completely unprotected,” said Alexey Moshkov, head of the Bureau of Special Technical Measures of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia. He reported this to Tass.

He added that in relation to bitcoin, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia will act on the basis of legislative regulation, which the Central Bank must develop. “We rely on the decisions of our regulator in the person of the Central Bank and we will act on the basis of legislative practice developing in this direction,” said Moshkov.
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In September 2014, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev said that the bill to ban the use of virtual money in Russia could be passed by the State Duma in the spring of 2015. According to him, in the fall, the document was at the negotiation stage, despite the fact that there were serious remarks from the law enforcement agencies related to the punishments (what to punish and how).

Last summer, it was reported that the Central Bank and the Russian government may eventually develop a regulation for the circulation of electronic currencies in Russia. “We are supporters of a careful approach to Bitcoin. Together with the Bank for International Settlements, we monitor this situation. You can’t reject this tool, perhaps, the future will follow, ”noted Luntovsky, the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.

Meanwhile, on the official portal of public and expert discussions, Regulation.gov.ru , the text of the draft law prepared by the Ministry of Finance, which amends the CAO RF, as well as the federal laws “On the Central Bank of the Russian Federation” (86-) and “On Information and Information Technologies and on the protection of information "(149-FZ), expanding the interpretation of the concept of monetary substitutes and imposing new sanctions for their release / emission, distribution, as well as information about it.

Those. even for the fact that you place somewhere information about how a particular cryptocurrency is made, how it functions and how it can be used to perform certain operations you can:

“Deliberate dissemination of information that allows for the release (issue) of money substitutes and (or) transactions with their use, - entails the imposition of an administrative fine on citizens in the amount of from five thousand to thirty thousand rubles; on officials from thirty thousand to fifty thousand rubles; on legal entities - from one hundred thousand to three hundred thousand rubles. "

The deadline for public discussion of this draft legislation is March 8, 2015.

There is an opportunity for each of you to participate in the evaluation of the text of the bill and express your attitude and position on this issue.

Below is the text of this bill:


( link )

Already a number of experts have published their comments on the text of the document.

I will give some excerpts from there:

“The proposed solution will not solve the problem of lack of regulatory legislation. The total ban of technology is a reverse medal of its complete disregard, and it has exactly the same negative consequences. [...] The fact that citizens of the Russian Federation cannot protect their rights judicially or administratively, this is not a problem of the existence of cryptocurrencies, but the lack of regulatory legislation. If there is a ban on operations with cryptocurrencies, if the rights of someone are violated, citizens still will not be able to go to court. For comparison, in other countries, without a ban, there are already precedents for handling cases using cryptocurrency. ”

“At the moment, the transaction of the same Bitcoin is much more transparent than that of cash. And it is possible with the help of cryptocurrency to make a much more convenient and transparent system than the circulation of cash. Bitcoin is an interaction protocol. No one bothers to write their own software, which contains all the necessary mechanisms to comply with the legislation of the Russian Federation. To begin with, in this direction it is necessary to approach the regulation correctly from the very beginning. Develop a legal framework for working with cryptocurrency. Yes, this task is more difficult than simply banning the technology, but these costs will pay off in the future. ”

“The adoption of this act will not allow developing the e-commerce market, will slow down the development of payment systems based on new principles of work. The easiest way to regulate the movement of the so-called. “Cash surrogates” - to give them a clear definition in the legislation. And set clear rules. For example, to introduce licenses for the right to engage in mining (mining, manufacturing) cryptocurrency. ”

“The problem as such does not exist. Real money does not interfere with illegal business, exactly like virtual currencies and cryptocurrency. It is quite obvious that Bitcoin's turnover is “unprofitable” for, first of all, “world bankers” (talking about the world's largest banks), governments of various countries, as well as well-established systems like Visa, Mastercard and others, where the transaction cost is prohibitively high at least the reason that they are performed (or checked) by people (often not one person is involved). The prohibition of cryptocurrency will create only negative pressure on the citizens of the Russian Federation. ”

“I believe that the ban on cryptocurrency is contrary to the rights of people to share information in principle. If you prohibit the exchange of information about cryptocurrency, then you must also prohibit people talking about it, and then thoughts. [...] Russia will once again be rejected tens of years ago in technological progress. In fact, this would be the same if Russian banks, at the time of the emergence of the Swift system, or other instant money transfers, would have refused these ideas and preferred to use ... the mail of Russia, for example. ”

"The problem that this bill solves is the fear of not being able to cope with progress."

Let me remind you that in Russia a number of news bitcoin portals and communities have already begun to be blocked . Russian state agencies decided to take the path of total rejection and ban a new kind of interaction of people, which, by the way, in many countries, on the contrary, is encouraged and developed as a new institution, with which you can receive, including and the state profit and use this path in its economic development.