Russian Conference Presses On Under Threat of Bitcoin Ban
Although governments worldwide have been slow to pick up on the advantages afforded by bitcoin, Russia's regulators have been among the most visibly reluctant to acknowledge the technology's potential to enable financial innovation. Proposed domestic legislation that would seek to bar consumers and businesses from using digital currencies, and even impose fines for such activities, is still in its early stages, but fear regarding such measures remains a powerful deterrent to the local ecosystem. In the face of this narrative, Moscow-based exhibition company Smile Expo is holding its second....
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According to a report, the Russian Finance Ministry is seeking to push for amendments to the Criminal Code by proposing two-year ‘corrective labor’ sentence, or a fine of up to 500,000 rubles for bitcoin users. The Russian Interior and Finance Ministries see cryptocurrencies as a threat to not only the Russian economy, but also its national security. ‘Corrective labor’ colonies are among the most common types of prisons in Russia. They are a combination of penal detention and forced labor. In a time where governments and regulators are taking varying approaches to popular decentralized....
The Deputy Finance Minister of the Russian Federation has now stated that the spread of bitcoin in Russia does not represent a threat the country’s financial ecosystem, at its current rate of adoption. As such, the plan to ban the cryptocurrency is now paused. Alexei Moiseev, the Deputy Finance Minister who has primarily spearheaded the Russian Finance Ministry’s intent to ban bitcoin beginning two years ago in 2014, has now stated that the cryptocurrency isn’t a threat to Russia’s financial system. At the time, Moiseev deemed bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as “surrogate currencies” – a....
A Russian Federal Tax Service Letter released a few weeks ago spelled out issues – including an implied statement that cryptocurrencies are not illegal – amongst others that affect the legal status of cryptocurrencies moving forward. Russian Blockchain Conference Sparks Federal Tax Service Letter Concerning Virtual Currencies. The legal implications of....
This week's Bitcoin in the Beltway conference will bring Bitcoin into the "Dragon's Den" of Washington, D. C. One of the Bitcoin community's most difficult challenges is negotiating with governments about what role Bitcoin should have in society. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are a serious threat to national fiat monetary systems, but the governments behind those systems are a threat to Bitcoin as well. For proof of this, one need look no further than how the Bitcoin price fluctuates based on statements made by government officials in nations such as the United States and China. This....
The Bitcoin Moscow Conference, originally planned for 23rd March, was postponed indefinitely last month. Though recent reports suggest Russia is still evaluating how to regulate bitcoin, fears that the country has enacted a bitcoin ban caused the event's ultimate delay. Nikita Andriyanov, one of the conference organisers, told CoinDesk: "[A] huge part of sponsors, partners and speakers refused to participate, referring to [the] situation in Russia with bitcoin and even with Crimea." But, organisers remain positive about the future, and are waiting for the situation to turn around. In....