Eastern Europe is aspired to march into the world of cryptocurrency. Recently Ukraine informed about its plans to regulate cyber money in the country as well as hinted on its desire to develop a national digital coin. But the long-term players in the regulatory field in this region are Russia and Belarus.
Russia started considering bitcoin’s legalization in spring 2017. After a few months, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin initiated the creation of the country’s state digital coin ‘cryptoruble’. As Russia keeps working hard on the draft bill, concerning the crypto market, in mid-December 2017, Belarus adopted a decree, which officially permits the use of cyber money.
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It seems that Belarus will be the one to win the race, as it plans to finalize the legalization of bitcoin this spring, whereas Russia postponed the emission of cryptoruble by mid-2019.
Russia’s Setback
Proposals for the development and regulation of cryptoruble will be put forward only in July 2018, and it will take at least a year to launch it fully. Such a statement was made by the head of the Russian Association of cryptocurrencies and blockchain Arseniy Sheltsin.
"The necessary documents will be developed and submitted in the fall, agreed upon at the end of the year [2018], and the launch of the currency will take place in mid-2019," Shcheltsin said.
According to his words, cryptoruble is being developed like a ‘clone’ of Russian public currency ruble. Its security is going to be back up by the used of the closed blockchain network. At the same time, nobody will be able to mine the state virtual coin.
"Cryptoruble will not be as popular as Bitcoin or Ethereum since it cannot be mined. Its rate compared to the ruble will always be stable, so there will be no sense in mining it, you won’t be able to trade it on an exchange. But you will be able to check the cryptoruble via nodes," Shcheltsin gave some hints.
Another surprising issue is that crypto exchanges will remain unlawful. Hence, cryptoruble will be the only option for moving money out of cryptos into rubles. Russian authorities claim that state cyber money’s goal is to attract foreign investors. Digital version of the Russian ruble will also be used for public procurements. Moreover, all the expenses of officials are planned to be recorded in the blockchain.
Belarus Moving Forward
The decree "On the development of the digital economy", signed by the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, will come into force on March 28, according to the recent report by the Park of High Technologies of Belarus (PHT). Therefore, the cryptocurrency legalization will be finalized in this country.
The document officially allows purchasing, selling and exchanging virtual money. It also allows people to work as crypto platforms operators, exchange service operators or to hold any other position in the field of blockchain or cryptos. However, only businesses, registered as residents of the PHT, will be able to carry out such activities. But before March 28 any crypto activities are considered illegal in Belarus.
So who will win the race of the cryptocurrency adoption in Eastern Europe? The time will tell.
