“The lack of regulation of the market cryptocurrency creates many problems”, – said Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, speaking to reporters on the meeting with the President of Russia. According to Siluanov, Vladimir Putin drew attention to some of these problems.
“These are the difficulties of compliance with anti-laundering legislation, and cases that are associated with the difficulties of identification.” Therefore, we agreed on the following – that the state needs to regulate the process of issuing crypto-currency, mining, circulation process. “The state should take it all under control.”
It is planned that the law on regulation of crypto-currency will be adopted by the State Duma by the end of this year. Today, Russia is developing its own stock exchanges, where you can buy bitcoins, and developers are creating new crypto-currencies, but so far this market has no official status.
What is a crypto currency?
Crypto currency is digital money. They differ from the usual two basic parameters.
Independence. Crypto money is not tied to any existing currency, nor to the price of oil, nor to any other assets.
Virtuality. Crypto currency exists only in the digital space, stored in an electronic wallet.
The crypto currency has no central bank-type regulatory body. The only type of digital money issue is “mining” (mining, mining) by users who run applications. For the use of resources (computer power), they are listed any amount of virtual money. The more powerful the computer – the more “mining”.
Exchange for real money, you can use crypto currency through virtual exchange services, such as Qiwi. Recently in Moscow, ATM exchanges began to work.
What crypto currency exists?
There are thousands of them. Yes, it all started with bitkoyna, which appeared in 2009. The boom in the popularity of digital coins began three or four years later. And now on the largest exchange trades about 300 kinds of crypto-currencies.
Any person advanced in technology, even a schoolboy, can write their crypto currency. And this is not a metaphor: technically savvy students really create their own crypto money. Crypto-currencies are written about the same way that programs are written.
A “ready” digital coin needs to be put on the stock exchange so that users can buy it. And it is better not to one exchange, but to dozens: like a farmer it is more profitable to supply milk to ten stores, and not to one shop. And the more a person buys your crypto currency, the higher will be her rate.
Why do I need a crypto currency? What can I buy for it?
Crypto-currencies are bought by people who hope to make good money on their growth. For example, in 2014, bitkoyn cost $ 100, and then stayed long at a price not higher than $ 200, and in mid-December 2017 rose to $ 20 thousand.
Financiers call buying a crypto currency the most risky, but also the most profitable type of investment.
In Russia, almost nothing can be bought for a crypto currency. News with the title “Now bitkoyin takes …” usually refer to small coffee shops or shops. So entrepreneurs are advertising on a popular topic.
Where can I buy crypto currency?
On crypto-exchanges.
Now in the rating of Coinmarket there are 163 exchanges with a daily turnover from several dollars to $ 630 million. The exchanges charge a commission for the purchase, sale, withdrawal of crypto-deniers: from 0.2 to 3% on average.
The most famous and large exchange is Poloniex, created in the USA. Also popular exchanges for Russian users are Yobit and EXMO, which displays bitkoyny and altokny even in rubles.
The pitfalls of any exchange are insecurity and insecurity of users.
First, the exchange can close. For example, the BTC-e exchange suddenly stopped working, its daily turnover reached 4000 bikookones.
So it can happen with any exchange. “By the malicious intent of its creators, or it may have questions from law enforcement agencies that will also freeze its work, or it will undergo a hacker attack.” These events connect the overall result – the possibility of losing their crypto assets, “explains the head of the working groups on legislative regulation digital economy under the State Duma of the Russian Federation Nikita Kulikov.
There are subtleties: “hot” and “cold” wallets. A “hot” purse means that your money is stored on the stock exchange itself. “Cold” is a personal crypto, it is stored on a laptop or phone, but if you lose a gadget – your money is gone.
Secondly, hackers steal money from customers’ accounts of crypto-instruments.
“In August 2017, hackers stole more than 600 bitokonov (more than $ 3 million) from the account of customers of the Chinese stock exchange OKEx.The representatives of the exchange said that the attack has nothing to do with the security of the platform itself, and the police refused to conduct an investigation, considering such a trade as a kind of financial pyramid”, – says Sergey Zarubin, senior manager of the consulting group on promising technologies of KPMG in Russia and the CIS.
They say that you can buy a powerful video card and earn a crypto currency. Can I do this, too?
Yes, anyone can. Only home mining does not make sense anymore.
Now industrial mining is developing – so-called farms. That is, business is replacing the amateurs.
Moreover, experts predict the death of traditional mining.
“Now, the production of crypto-currency is done through the concept of proof of work – when the amount of income depends on the capacity of the equipment, computer, a mining farm,” explains Vyacheslav Martynov, a member of the supervisory board of the Ethereum fund. He predicts that in the future the mining model will change: “The new concept is called the proof of stake.”
If you do not go into the technical details – the revenue does not depend on the power of the computer. “Anyone who has a home computer, a smartphone, an Internet router, will be able to make a profit,” the expert predicts.
It is legal? Mine, buy crypto currency?
In Russia, the law on crypto-currencies has not yet been adopted. Mine and buy – not prohibited, but not allowed. But soon everything will change: by the end of 2017, the State Duma plans to pass a law regulating this market.
Why is this necessary? When the turnover of cryptogen is not regulated, it means that a huge market exists in parallel with the state. Miners – and physical persons, and farms – do not pay tax on profits. Calculations bitkoynami – “dark forest” for the state and law enforcement agencies, so on exchanges you can turn illegal transactions.
Representatives of departments (the Central Bank of Russia, the RF Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development), which are members of the working group, are unanimous in that the crypto currency needs to be regulated, but differ in the vision of the status of the crypto currency and the legalization of mining.
“Against” the crypto currency
The Central Bank of the Russian Federation does not support the legalization of crypto-currencies as a legitimate means of payment.
“The use of crypto currency as a money surrogate is actively proposed for the calculation of goods and services.” In our view, this has a risk of undermining monetary circulation and, of course, we will not allow the use of crypto currency as money substitutes, “said Elvira Nabiullina, .
In her opinion, the mechanism of using crypto-currency “has signs of a pyramid”. Among the risks of using crypto-currency, the head of the Central Bank notes their anonymity and the possibility of using for money laundering and terrorist financing.
“For” the crypto currency
Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev is confident that crypto-currencies need to be legalized.
“To say, let’s say, we will prohibit crypto-currencies and pretend that they do not exist-people will continue to buy the same bitcoyans in a cafe for cash, and that we should rule out.” Within the white field, trade, and if you earn – pay tax, “he explains.
First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov believes that Russia should have a national crypto currency. “I am a supporter of crypto-currencies, I believe that a cryptoruble should exist.” We will not be able to hide the crypto-currencies “in a chest”, this topic will develop.”
German Gref, the head of Sberbank (part of the working group), is a supporter of crypto currency. Earlier he talked about how he bought and sold bitcoins, but Sberbank’s interest lies in the development of block-technologies that will change the financial environment in the “digital future.”
“We need to adjust very carefully so as not to strangle this extremely promising technology in the embrace of regulation,” he says of the future bill.