A group of Russian deputies delivered to the State Duma or lower house of the Russian Federal Assembly, a bill that seeks to regulate Bitcoin mining and other cryptoactives in that country.
One of the articles of the law opens the possibility for Russian citizens to mine on their own, as long as they register as “individual entrepreneur or self-employed worker”. They will also be able to do so if their electricity consumption does not exceed the limits established by the government.
The project proposes the opening of a national registry in which individuals or companies that participate or want to enter the cryptocurrency mining sector must register. For this, it is proposed the formation of a body that will be called the Registry of Mining Participants.
Additionally, mining operators will be asked to keep track of the cryptocurrencies generated, their types, contracts with users (if any), contracts with exchange operators or payment systems and banks, exchange services that exchange currencies and their purchase. With these data they will have to submit a periodic report to the government.
The proposal is born, according to explain the textbecause the lack of regulation of that industry “leads to the fact that all transactions with digital currencies, as well as their release, take place in a ‘gray’ zone. Because of this, they consider that citizens often “face cases of fraud” and lack the tools to “protect their rights and interests.”
Russian citizens have opened more than 12 million bitcoin and cryptocurrency wallets in which they handle approximately 10 billion rubles, which which is equal to 140 million dollars, details the project.
The miners will not be responsible for the origin of the funds
The proposal also establishes that the Registry of Mining Participants “will not be responsible for verifying the origin of the funds” of the miners, in addition to the exempts from the responsibility of the control over money laundering and financing of terrorism.
With regard to domain names and network addresses located in Russia, according to the project, these must be under the control of the regulator. Likewise, it would happen with information systems, technicians, whose funds are placed on Russian territory. The same would apply to “software and hardware complexes and/or user equipment hosted in Russia”.
Bitcoin mining has the support of Russian ministers
The legislative proposal coincides with a concern expressed by Evgeny Grabchak, Russia’s energy minister, last March, reported by CriptoNoticias.
For Grabchak, the legal loophole over the Bitcoin mining industry must be resolved as soon as possible. “The legal vacuum must be eliminated if we want to carry out this activity in some way, and we have no other options in the current situation, we must introduce legal regulation to add the concept of mining to the regulatory framework,” the minister said at the time.
From the Russian Ministry of Economy They also showed support for Bitcoin miningas long as it is done in regions of that country where there is a constant surplus of electrical energy.
In addition to the proposal to mine in regions with energy to spare, they promoted the initiative to introduce reduced commercial rates for electricity consumption for this activity.
This is a proposal that possibly complements the bill that the Ministry of Finance prepared a few months ago and that is in the hands of the Executive. there it is set standards seeking to apply strong control on operations with bitcoin, which would practically remain in the hands of banks.
This bill, which has the support of several Russian ministries, faces opposition from the Central Bank of Russia.
The financial institution has given clear signs of its rejection of the cryptocurrency sector in general, mainly because it considers it a “significant threat to the well-being of Russian citizens and the stability of the financial system.”