Domestic business circles hurry the state agencies to decide on the mining as a promising type of business, and they predict an unprecedented flourishing of the economy

Crypto-currencies continue to be actively introduced into our lives. Bitcoins, ethers or other kinds of crypto-currency already pay for individual goods and services, buy real estate and land. The business, based on the mining (mining) of virtual money, according to estimates, not only in the world, but also in our country has reached billionths of a revolution. For example, analysts at Citigroup Bank determined the size of the Ukrainian market of bitcoins at $ 2.5 billion. All this goes beyond the Ukrainian legal field, as they say, past the ticket office, ie. without benefit to the state budge.

"Judicial and Legal Newspaper"

has already written about the discussions on the regulatory and legal regulation of the status of the crypto currency in Ukraine and that until now the entire domestic regulatory framework on this issue consists only of a letter and explanation of the NBU. In particular, the Ukrainians were explained that the legal nature of the crypto currency does not allow to recognize it as a currency value, but only as a surrogate, which has no real value and is not controlled by the state authorities of any country. Crypto-currency can not be used by individuals and legal entities on the territory of Ukraine as a means of payment, since it contradicts the norms of Ukrainian legislation. At the same time, mining itself as a process of electronic computing is not prohibited, obviously because of the complexity of determining the composition of the crime.

Uncertainty and ambiguity of this phenomenon, as you know, gives rise to abuses and tensions between business, which is engaged in mining, with law enforcement agencies.
Human rights activists and representatives of the market once again compare their positions and expect from officials and deputies a clear answer to numerous questions.

What business wants

The IT sphere in the modern world is the most promising sector for investment. Ukraine is no exception. Financial experts say that investments in the domestic IT industry have tripled over the past year.
"Without bank loans, without state programs, without external financial assistance from the IMF or the World Bank, something is created that changes this world," says Konstantin Yarmolenko, adviser to the chairman of the State Agency for Electronic Governance of Ukraine.

According to him, business needs only three things for normal work in the field of mining. First, the Crypto-currency must be given an official status. Market representatives agree with the definition of the National Bank that virtual money is not a currency but a risky money surrogate, but at the same time, most developed countries introduce such a notion as an "intangible digital asset", to which property rights should be extended.
Secondly, a special tariff for electricity is needed for mining.

And thirdly, the right of every citizen is to open a mining farm, to receive income from this, to be able to register his electronic wallets, pay taxes and convert the crypto currency into hryvnia.

"If we ensure the implementation of these three components, the country will receive a legal and powerful mining market, which, given the volume, is able to generate GDP actively,"

concludes the adviser.

Law enforcement nuances

Where exactly the supporters of mining crypto currency will have to make a lot of efforts, so it is in working with law enforcement agencies. As representatives of IT business say, there are often situations when the actions of state power structures are excessive and not justified.

"Over the past three years, there have been more than a hundred cases when law enforcement agencies seized a server in IT companies. Such actions stopped the activities of companies, the investigation and examination last for years, the case never comes to court, but business is being destroyed. And the main thing is that no one is personally responsible for this, "

said Andrey Kolodyuk, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Association of Venture Capital and Direct Investments.

Lawyers called "favorite" articles of the Criminal Code, according to which law enforcement officers try to attract crypto businessmen to criminal liability:

Article 176. Violation of copyright and related rights - as a rule, for the use of unlicensed software.

Article 191. Assignment, embezzlement or possession of property by abuse of official position - if the farms of miners

are found in the premises of a state enterprise, where the tariffs for electricity are much lower.

Article 201. Smuggling - if the equipment for mining has been imported illegally.

Article 205. Fictitious Entrepreneurship.

Article 209. Legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime.

Article 212. Evasion from payment of taxes, fees, other mandatory payments.

Article 258-5. Financing of terrorism - if the SBU finds investors with any Russian roots.

In addition, according to the lawyer Artem Afyan, the prosecutor's office and investigative bodies widely believe that the crypto currency, and especially the anonymity of transactions between crypto-currency purses, encourages the criminal world to actively use the crypto currency in illegal activities.

"It is a myth. The technology of blocking, which underlies all transactions of crypto-currencies, does not allow anything to be erased, and for a criminal there is nothing worse when the evidence of his operations are in the public domain, "

the human rights activist said.

Parade of bills and proposals

Establish communications between the miners and government agencies have been trying since last year.

Since October, two draft laws on this topic have been under consideration in the parliament. One, No. 7183 "On circulation of the crypto-currency in Ukraine", submitted by a group of people's deputies from the NF and the BCP, and the second, No. 7183-1 "On stimulating the market of crypto-currencies and their derivatives in Ukraine", was submitted to BP by the head of the committee on questions of financial policy and banking Sergey Rybalka. All bills have their own definitions of crypto currency, grant them the right to exchange for the national currency and be considered a financial asset. Differences, by and large, only in the state regulator. One bill proposes to appoint the National Bank as the manager of the digital money market, and another - to create a new separate state agency.
However, the expert community has already managed to criticize these bills, calling them raw and incomplete in terms of coverage of all subjects. They were also refused to support the National Bank and the National Commission on Securities and the Stock Market.

The initiative was picked up by the Agency for Electronic Governance of Ukraine. By the way, it is the leader among government agencies for mastering the technology of blockades.

According to Konstantin Yarmolenko, the agency in 2017 implemented several pilot projects to integrate the detachment into state registers. Regarding this technology, registers of land and real estate will be maintained. In addition, the blockade is transferred to auctions for the sale of all property confiscated from corrupt officials and assets, including the Crypto currency. These auctions are conducted by the state enterprise "Setam", and, most likely, it already looks closely at the role of the first Ukrainian crypto-exchange.
Director of "Setam" Victor Vishnev said that, as an electronic platform, they are ready to sell any crypto currency from any customer.

The development of the Ukrainian IT sector is actively supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. His experts, together with the specialists of the Agency for Electronic Management, are completing the preparation of a new draft law on crypto-currencies, which are to be sent to the Verkhovna Rada within a few weeks.
At the same time, more recently, the National Security and Defense Council instructed the National Bank to create a working group with the participation of representatives of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, the National Commission on Securities and Stock Market, the Security Service of Ukraine, the National Police, the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine, the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine and the State Service for Special Communications and protection of information of Ukraine for the development of regulatory and legal proposals for the regulation of the issue of crypto-currency in Ukraine.

"We need a new document, in which the status of the same mining, the same crypto-currencies, virtual currencies as a whole, ICO and blocking technology will be clearly established,"

said the head of projects and programs of the NBU's open markets department Emal Bakhtari.

He also said that he was charged with determining the state regulator and the procedure for the functioning of the crypto-currency market, the procedure for monitoring transactions using crypto-currencies and identifying the subjects of these transactions, and the procedure for taxing revenues from the implementation of crypto-currency transactions.

Whether the working group will already be able to work out the acts is not known at the moment.

"We do not have a clear deadline on the creation of a new bill. However, given the long process of Ukrainian lawmaking, we need to hurry, so that the legal vacuum in the crypto-currency market is finally over, "

the representative of the National Bank summed up.

A source: sud.ua