''The government just wants to subjugate the entire cryptocurrency market, but it is unlikely to succeed''

It has been proposed to create exchanges for cryptocurrencies

The State Duma has received the first draft bill ''On regulation of decentralized virtual property'', which refers to cryptocurrencies and tokens. On November 29th, the document was submitted to the head of the committee on financial market, Anatoly Aksakov, and the chairperson of the expert council on legislative support of financial technologies, Martin Shakkum, Kommersant reports. The text of the draft bill can be found in the public domain. From this it follows that the draftsmen are Andrey Voronkov, the founder of Voronov Ventures PLC, Ekaterina Kotova, a corporate lawyer, Nikita Kulikov, the founder of PravoRobotov ANO, and Ernest Bachurin, PhD in Law.

They propose mechanisms for creation of cryptocurrency exchanges with the right of the government to establish its own state cryptocurrency exchanges with the primary currency in the form of CryptoRuble, which can be exchanged for ordinary rubles with payment of relevant taxes. The cryptocurrency non-state exchanges are proposed to create in the form of a commercial legal entity, the control of activities of which will be carried out by a state authorized body.

According to the draft bill, the Decentralized autonomous organization, which exists in virtual form, will be responsible for controlling cryptocurrencies and tokens.

Realnoe Vremya asked opinions of other representatives of cryptocurrency market and analysts of companies working with investors.

''Blockchain knows no regulation or state borders''

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  Konstantin Nikonov digital specialist for the fund Sheredar, bitcoin evangelist

  I support the creation of cryptocurrency exchanges. Including in Russia. It is the market should decide where and what exchange is better. Let a user of satoshi (the smallest part of bitcoin — editor's note) vote for the service. If not under duress, but at least through the provision of choice, that would be great! It is too costly to regulate cryptocurrencies. And not necessary. The initial idea of cryptocurrency lies in unregulated and secured transfers. The credit to blockchain of bitcoin is high today because of the guarantee of transfers to another person through a secure encryption service. It is possible to create even thousands of cryptocurrencies! National and not. Will people trust this service? I don't think so. Sputnik search engine is a glaring example of this. Another attempt to ride the technological hype, turning into a failure — that's where it leads.

  One should understand, the state is a separate from the real world group of siloviks. If CryptoRuble and blockchain do not hinder people from using another possibilities, let it be. Maybe someone would like to have 'wooden' tokens.

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  Denis Rychka press secretary for Russian association of cryptocurrencies and blockchain

  In fact, this bill, which was proposed two months ago for public discussion, over two months absolutely has not changed, which in this case brings a smile about the document, which has absolutely no possibility to realize in life. The creation of cryptocurrency exchanges with CryptoRuble is a question exclusively within the competence of the Central Bank of Russia. In this case it is just a suggestion of lawyers who do not even have experience in this market. This is, by and large, a usual populist measure, just a bunch of lawyers decided to designate themselves in this segment this way. In other words, it is unlikely that people who have no experience can write a law that would satisfy the Central Bank of Russia. Since the representatives of RAСIB interact with the Central Bank and with other participants [of the working group] by a decree of the president, we fully understand that the competence of the lawyers at the Central Bank in this matter is higher than that of the specified group of lawyers.

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  Bogdan Zvarich analyst for FINAM group of companies

  In order to make investors go to cryptocurrency exchanges, the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies should be substantially decreased because cryptocurrencies and stocks with bonds — they are completely different tools that carry completely different risks. If today many are trying to 'play', so to speak, with the cryptocurrency (because I wouldn't call it an investment, it is an attempt to catch a speculative growth), then exchanges have completely different principles of operation. For now, the cryptocurrency is, of course is it not quite a right comparison, but it is still more similar to slot machines. At the same time, stocks and bonds are secured by real assets that generate cash flow.

  But here we do not see that, for example, in the part of ITO, tokens are secured by real assets which in the future may not only generate some profit but also the investor will be able to get some funds from its sale. Now all this can be called with a modern word 'hype' and not more because if the asset can increase by 10% in a day and then fall by 30%, which bitcoin has recently done, then what can be said? This is not an investment, it is a purely speculative instrument with certain defined characteristics of a pyramid. A sensible investor, most probably, will not take such an asset because he assesses not only how much he can earn but also the risks it bears. In accordance with such risks, he is ready to invest a certain amount in this asset. If to consider from the point of view of cryptocurrency, here the investments should be minimal. For example, if you have $100,000, then taking into account current risks and current variability, you can invest no more than $1,000, that is, less than 1% of your funds.

  Accordingly, even an appearance of official exchanges, if the situation in trading of cryptocurrency doesn't change, I don't think that it will have a significant impact on raising the funds in this sector. Besides, there are analogues of exchanges abroad. Of course, we can try to see, get a certain possibility of regulation of cryptocurrency. But again, if we have some world asset, e.g. oil price — we can regulate them indefinitely in Russia, but there are still also sites in the West. And if this asset is not under regulation there, then regulation in one single country, in my opinion, makes little sense. So I do not think that an introduction of our exchanges and our regulation, separate from the world, will give some real effect from the viewpoint of investor rights protection.

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  Nikita Kuptsov director for communications in the start-up IZX in Kazan that develops its own cryptocurrency

  It is evident that the government wants to subjugate all the cryptocurrency market, but it is unlikely to succeed. Today there are exchanges that exchange fiat money for cryptocurrency, there are telegram bots and so on. It is not regulated by now, but it is clear that they want to forbid any exchange of cryptocurrency for fiat money and fiat money for cryptocurrency. It is clear that our officials want to benefit something from that. But I think some bypasses will be found eventually. A national cryptocurrency is a complete nonsense. Blockchain knows no regulation or state borders. The Internet has no borders. It is international and anonymous. Cryptocurrency using a passport in a department of Russian Post, in an Sberbank department, where you were issued a banking card? Of course, it will repel any desire of a new person to buy cryptocurrency, but those who know their onions, they will find a million ways how to avoid it. It would be better if our government followed the example of Singapore where there are favourable conditions for companies that work in the field of cryptocurrencies. In Malaysia, it is also possible to open a bank account in bitcoin on offshore accounts. The proposed bill is another stillborn project like the search engine Sputnik or the universal electronic card. The value of any cryptocurrency is the trust of those who use it. No one wil have trust to CryptoRuble. But the companies, which are listed in the authors — it is not clear who they are at all.

  The law on regulation of cryptocurrencies is being deferred, but, if I'm not mistaken, it will be adopted by the summer. It is unclear what will be the result. Let them regulate, cryptography is improving and, in principle, enable to encode all the data in your computer. No tax body and others won't be able to decode it.