Ministry of Communications proposes to regulate ICO

Today, the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media has published a draft government decree that describes the rules for issuing digital tokens. This document has already been posted on the state portal of regulatory acts. It is worth noting that it was Nikolai Nikiforov, the Minister of Communications and Mass Communications, who proposed to introduce the term “digital token” instead of the term “cryptocurrency” or “crypto-ruble”.

The document also defines the concept. So, this term describes a record created using cryptographic (i.e. encryption) means in a distributed information system, which gives the owner of the token the right to receive the initial value of this token on behalf of the issuer. This may be the person or organization that made the placement.

Accordingly, all organizations that are engaged in the placement of tokens will be accredited. And it is proposed to conduct it on the basis of the Ministry of Communications. It is reported that the process will be purely voluntary, the validity of accreditation will be five years.

In order to undergo the procedure, an organization must have registration in Russia, and its share capital must be at least 100 million rubles. In addition, such an organization must have a license for the development, production and distribution of cryptocurrency. Tokens should be issued for rubles through cashless settlement, it must be redeemed at face value from any bearer.

In general, the Russian authorities have long thought about the issue of cryptocurrency regulation. In 2017, it was decided to form a unified position of the government and departments on this issue. For the first time, a legislative initiative on cryptocurrency in Russia was proposed in 2015. Then the Ministry of Finance proposed to introduce criminal liability for the production and circulation of cryptocurrencies, considering that the maximum penalty for these acts should be no less than 4 years of deprivation.

True, with the development of the cryptocurrency sphere, officials began to change their own view on this issue. Thus, the Ministry of Finance said that the level of threat of digital currencies does not correspond to the proposed punishment, therefore, the department decided to "wait a bit and see how the situation develops internationally."

Last year, Olga Skorobogatova, Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, made a rather positive proposal. She admitted the possibility of granting national status to cryptocurrency: “When emissions are controlled, when players understand who is behind this, when risks are weighed, and when customers and citizens clearly understand that this is guaranteed by the state.”

At the end of last year, another opinion was voiced - this time, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev, who believes that cryptocurrency should be regulated as a financial asset. He said that investments like Bitcoin are high-risk, which determines the approach of the government and officials to their regulation. In particular, it was then proposed to allow only qualified investors to allow buying and selling cryptocurrency.

We can say that Russian President Vladimir Putin put an end to this issue after holding a meeting with the Ministry of Finance, presidential aide Andrei Belousov, Central Bank Chairman Elvira Nabiullina and QIWI CEO Sergey Solonin. At the meeting it was decided that "the issue and circulation of cryptocurrency in Russia should be under state control."

A little later, Anton Siluanov, the Minister of Finance announced that no one would ban the issue of cryptocurrency, mining and the process of circulation, but the state would take control of everything. The problem, according to officials, is that cryptocurrency and anonymity make it possible to launder funds obtained by criminal means without any problems. It is also a great opportunity to evade taxes or finance terrorism. In addition, this is the spread of fraudulent schemes, the victims of which may be ordinary citizens.

Interestingly, the Russian authorities in the same 2017 announced that they were planning to reduce electricity prices for mining farms .