The new bill on mining was considered a ban on the profession

On November 17, a new bill on mining was submitted to the State Duma. After a loud dispute between the Central Bank, which is critical of the idea of ​​using “money surrogates” in Russia, and the Ministry of Finance, which wants to levy taxes on the activities of large mining companies, it was developed as a kind of compromise. In the proposed concept, the cryptocurrency can be sold without the use of the Russian information infrastructure or with its use within the framework of an experimental legal regime. Advertising will be prohibited. Experts explained to MK what is behind these formulations.

The authors of the document are 16 parliamentarians, including Anatoly Aksakov, head of the financial market committee, Alexei Gordeev, deputy chairman of the State Duma, and Anton Gorelkin, deputy head of the information policy committee.

Such a strong legislative composition hints at a high probability of passing this bill with minimal changes. The authors expect it to come into force as early as January 1, 2023.

“The law“ on mining ”has been worked out in the State Duma since spring, then in September it was sent for revision,” recalls Stanislav Kasimov, chairman of the Council for Digital Development of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Moscow Region. – Then the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin instructed to finalize the bill by December 17. This time, a consensus was found in the wording between the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank and other participants in the process.” As a result, the domestic crypto market can become more transparent and safe for ordinary users. But cryptocurrency will still not be considered a means of payment in Russia.

“Since cryptocurrency raises questions from the point of view of a means of payment and the Central Bank is very tough and, in my opinion, rightly opposes its use in this capacity, after long disputes, the presented version of the bill was developed,” Anatoly Aksakov, one of the authors of the document, told MK. – But since mining exists – this is an activity to create cryptocurrencies – and takes place using Russian infrastructure, then it needs to be legalized.

Moreover, large miners themselves say: “Legitimize us, we want to work in the legal space, pay taxes, within reasonable rules.” A bill has been introduced that makes it possible to legally engage in this activity.

At the same time, a draft law on experimental legal regimes will be introduced in the near future, which allows, in certain cases, which are determined by law, the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment for foreign economic activity.”

According to BitRiver’s assessment, in the new bill, the “powerful ones” propose to consolidate in the Russian legal field the norms that will regulate the procedure and conditions for the creation (distribution) of digital currency, as well as mining activities. In particular, the definition of digital currency mining and a mining pool is given.

It will also provide the opportunity to alienate (sell) digital currency within the framework of an experimental legal regime.

In the current external economic conditions, digital currencies mined by Russian miners can be used when making settlements under foreign trade contracts. According to expert estimates, Russian industrial miners can provide liquidity in the amount of about 240 billion rubles a year at the first stage. Recall that the use of cryptocurrency to pay for goods for “gray imports” or for other schemes that help circumvent Western sanctions has long been discussed at domestic economic conferences.

Andrey Tugarin, managing partner of GMT Legal, said that theoretically, now every Russian will be able to mine cryptocurrencies if they do not advertise and sell them domestically. “They even prescribed tax obligations, which has a downside: it will be possible to officially take into account not only the income, but also the expenses of the miners,” the expert noted. “They have been waiting for this for a long time.”

However, many market participants are very skeptical about the requirements described in the bill and point out that the document raises many more questions than answers.

As the head of InDeFi Smart Bank Sergey Mendeleev noted, today in Russia everything related to cryptocurrencies has been allowed, with the exception of two points. Firstly, it was impossible to accept cryptocurrencies as payment for goods transferred, work performed, services provided, in accordance with part 5 of article 14 of the law on digital financial assets.

Secondly, according to part 7 of the same article, it was forbidden to disseminate information about the offer or acceptance of digital currency as payment for goods transferred, work performed, services provided.

“You could freely mine, sell, buy, exchange crypto, play on futures, organize exchangers – there are more than 400 of them operating in the Russian Federation, if anything – and exchanges,” the expert explained. Now it turns out that they “legalized” the already fully permitted mining, since it is hard to imagine that the huge Data Processing Center in Udomlya next to the Kalinin NPP is “such an illegal building”. But it was forbidden to advertise and generally offer in any open form both the crypt itself and any goods and services in order to organize the issuance and circulation of it. Did you make an exchanger? Offered software for the exchanger? Did you write in your resume that you know how to work with crypto? All this is a violation.

The law still allows transactions between specific people. But any public activity on the exchange and circulation of the crypt will be prohibited.

Yes, and mining is not so simple. “Not only does the law suggest that the Government of the Russian Federation determine the requirements for persons involved in mining, and they can write anything there, but for each bitcoin mined, they will have to report to the tax authorities with information about “a unique sequence of characters used to record transactions with digital currency “, – the analyst emphasized.

Moreover, if earlier you could easily and completely legally sell mined in any exchanger, now it will be prohibited – still, there will be no exchangers left! And it will be possible to sell digital currency on foreign exchanges without the use of currency control, whatever that means when transferring crypto, with it is not clear at all how the money received back in the Russian Federation. “Do you consider this legalization? asked Mendeleev. “I consider it a ban on the profession.”