RACIB calls on President of the Russian Federation​ to change the approach to regulating cryptocurrencies

What’s new? The Russian Association of Cryptoeconomics, Artificial Intelligence, and Blockchain (RACIB) and the nonprofit partnership of software developers RUSSOFT sent a letter to President Vladimir Putin asking him to change the government’s approach to regulating the market. The leaders of the organizations said that the sanctions against Russia “have led to the obvious need to build alternative payment systems.” They noted that thanks to Putin’s support, the necessary draft laws and bylaws have been adopted, but despite this, the experimental legal regimes in the field of finance are hardly used.

Letter from RACIB and RUSSOFT

What else does the letter say? Representatives from RACIB and RUSSOFT said that certain provisions of the 2022 Digital Financial Assets (DFA) law amendment proposal make it difficult to realize the potential of digital financial technologies. They stressed that the amendments introduce not only administrative but also criminal penalties for Russian developers of solutions based on blockchain technology.

There is growing activity around the world to create and implement international and regional digital tools for cross-border payments that do not depend on primary and secondary sanctions, the letter says. It is noted that Russia has a “window of opportunity” to become a leader in the implementation of international alternative digital payment and accounting systems, which “together with the appropriate regulatory framework will ensure the normal functioning of the accounting and payment system of the entire community of countries friendly to the Russian Federation in the shortest possible time.”

According to the letter, the current DFA regulation policy creates serious risks of lagging behind the Russian economy, including friendly countries. “Such an extremely conservative and prohibitive approach” does not allow Russian businesses to fully use the potential of new financial instruments and may lead to a loss in the pace of development of the digital economy, the authors believe. The current regulation also contributes to the relocation of Russian companies to more advanced jurisdictions and direct financial losses for the country’s budget.

Representatives of RACIB and RUSSOFT asked Putin to facilitate a working meeting with the participation not only of the Bank of Russia, but also of other interested departments, and to allow the participation of representatives of the “organized digital community”. The purpose of this meeting will be to agree on the principles of state policy in the sphere of DFA regulation. Following the results of this meeting, the representatives of RACIB and RUSSOFT propose to form a working group for the rapid preparation of pilot projects of digital financial technologies’ application.

In January, the residents of the Irkutsk region sent a letter to Putin with a request to introduce differentiated electricity tariffs for local miners. They told about the critical situation with illegal cryptocurrency mining in the region.