Will we even be forbidden to talk about cryptocurrencies?

The other day, another government agency, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, announced its position on cryptocurrencies, in particular about bitcoin.

“The unsettled status of cryptocurrencies makes transactions with them quite risky, and in case of any loss, Bitcoin holders are completely insecure,” said Alexei Moshkov, head of the Bureau of Special Technical Events of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. He reported this to TASS.

He added that in relation to bitcoin, the Russian Interior Ministry will act on the basis of legislative regulation, which the Central Bank should 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 emerging in this direction,” said Moshkov.

In September 2014, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev said that the bill on the ban on the use of virtual money in Russia could be adopted by the State Duma in the spring of 2015. According to him, in the autumn the document was at the stage of approval, despite the fact that the law enforcement authorities had serious comments related to punishments (what to punish and how).

Last summer, it was reported that the Central Bank and the Russian government could eventually develop regulations for the circulation of electronic currencies in Russia. “We are committed to a tidy approach to bitcoin. Together with the Bank for International Settlements, we are monitoring this situation. This tool cannot be rejected, perhaps the future lies with it, ”said Luntovsky, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.

In the meantime, the text of the draft law prepared by the Ministry of Finance, which amends the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, as well as the federal laws “On the Central Bank of the Russian Federation” (86-FZ) and “On Information, Information Technologies”, has been published on the official portal of public and expert discussions Regulation.gov.ru and on the protection of information ”(149-FZ), expanding the interpretation of the concept of monetary surrogates and imposing new sanctions for their release / issue, distribution, as well as for information about it.

Those. even for the fact that you will post somewhere information about how a particular cryptocurrency is produced, how it functions and how it can be used to carry out certain operations you can be punished:

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

The term for public discussion of this draft legislative act is March 8, 2015.

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

The following is the text of this bill:


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

Here are some excerpts from there:

“The proposed solution to the problem of the lack of regulatory legislation will not solve. The total prohibition of technology is the inverse medal of its complete disregard, and has exactly the same negative consequences. [...] The fact that citizens of the Russian Federation cannot protect their rights in a judicial or administrative manner 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 someone’s rights are violated, citizens will still not be able to go to court. For comparison, in other countries, without a ban, there are already precedents for considering cases using cryptocurrencies. ”

“At the moment, Bitcoin’s transactions are much more transparent than cash. And it is possible with the help of cryptocurrencies to make a much more convenient and transparent system than the turnover 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 worth initially approaching the regulation correctly. Develop a legislative framework for working with cryptocurrency. Yes, this task is more difficult than simply banning technology, but these costs will pay off in the future. ”

“The adoption of this act will not allow the e-commerce market to develop, it 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 “Money substitutes” - give them a clear definition in the law. And set clear rules. For example, introduce licenses for the right to engage in mining (mining, production) of cryptocurrencies. ”

“There is no problem as such. Real money does not interfere with illegal business, just like virtual currencies and cryptocurrencies. It is quite obvious that the Bitcoin turnover is “disadvantageous” for primarily “world bankers” (we are talking about the largest world banks), governments of various countries, as well as well-established systems like Visa, Mastercard and others where the transaction cost is prohibitive at least for that the reason that their people perform (or check) (often more than one person is involved). The ban on cryptocurrencies will only create negative pressure on citizens of the Russian Federation. ”

“I believe that the ban on cryptocurrencies contradicts the rights of people to exchange information in principle. If you prohibit the exchange of information about cryptocurrencies, then it is also necessary to prohibit people's conversations about this, and then thoughts. [...] Once again, Russia will be thrown back decades ago in technological progress. In fact, this will be tantamount if Russian banks at the time of the appearance of the Swift system or other instant money transfers would abandon these ideas and would prefer to use ... Russian mail, for example. ”

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

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