{"id":22668,"date":"2018-01-30T17:00:58","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T17:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci027cfe7a300c2697"},"modified":"2018-01-30T17:00:58","modified_gmt":"2018-01-30T17:00:58","slug":"cryptocurrency-friendly-regulations-belarus-could-attract-foreign-capital-and-icos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/business\/cryptocurrency-friendly-regulations-belarus-could-attract-foreign-capital-and-icos","title":{"rendered":"Cryptocurrency-Friendly Regulations in Belarus Could Attract Foreign Capital and ICOs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At the end of 2017, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko signed<\/a> a \u201cDigital Economy Development Ordinance<\/a>,\u201d aimed at developing the country\u2019s IT sector and attracting blockchain technology companies, capital and talent from all over the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cBelarus becomes the first state in the world which opens up broad opportunities for the use of the blockchain technology,\u201d said Lukashenko. \u201cWe have all opportunities to become a regional center of competence in this field.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Belarus News Agency, the new ordinance gives \u201ca serious competitive edge\u201d to the country in the creation of a 21st-century digital economy. It provides friendly conditions and simplified regulations for resident companies of the Hi-Tech Park<\/a> (HTP), a cluster for innovative IT. Belarus promotes the HTP as a special economic zone with a special tax and legal regime.<\/p>\n

In particular, Belarus wants to offer comprehensive regulations for business based on blockchain technology, as well as legalize cryptocurrencies, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and smart contracts at the national level. The Digital Economy Development Ordinance is expected to come into force in March 2018, three months after its publication.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, the people of Belarus can list and promote ICOs, create and sell cryptocurrencies, establish cryptocurrency exchanges and do other operations with digital money,\u201d reported RT<\/a>. Foreign businesses will be able to take advantage of the country\u2019s simplified and permissive regulations by registering a local company. It\u2019s worth noting that many transactions with crypto tokens will not be taxed and will be exempt from VAT until 2023.<\/p>\n

According to Reuters<\/a>, the decree is designed to attract cryptocurrency ventures seeking to escape cryptocurrency and ICO regulations, which are becoming more and more restrictive in the rest of the world. \u201cThe decree is a breakthrough for Belarus,\u201d Anton Myakishev, the head of Microsoft\u2019s Belarus office, told Reuters. \u201cIt gives the industry the possibility to make a leap forward in its development and allows foreign capital the possibility to come to Belarus and work in comfortable conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am firmly convinced that the effect will be huge,\u201d Mikhail Myasnikovich, chairman of the Council of the Republic of Belarus’ National Assembly, noted<\/a> in a national television interview, adding that Belarus has become the first country in the world to adopt comprehensive business regulations for blockchain-based cryptocurrencies, smart contracts and ICOs. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as I know, we are pioneers in this field,\u201d said Myasnikovich. \u201cNo country has ever said with such certainty that it is ready to work towards setting up an analogue of an international financial or currency center. The decree describes every process in detail, namely registration, turnover and taxation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur country enables a legal environment for using the blockchain,\u201d said<\/a> IT businessman Viktor Prokopenya. \u201cThis technology can be compared with internet development in the 1990s. The web has transformed many professional fields. So will the blockchain.\u201d Prokopenya added that the new ordinance doesn\u2019t go as far as recognizing cryptocurrencies as a means of payment in Belarus, but recognizes cryptocurrency mining as a legitimate business activity.<\/p>\n

According to an opinion piece published in The Washington Post, titled \u201cWhy would authoritarian Belarus liberalize cryptocurrencies?<\/a>,\u201d permissive cryptocurrency regulations in Belarus could force Russia to follow suit. Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev acknowledged that heavy cryptocurrency regulation in Russia could encourage the outflow of ICOs from Russia into the neighboring country.<\/p>\n

It seems plausible, in fact, that if even a few countries introduce crypto-friendly regulations that allow businesses to do things they couldn\u2019t do at home, the world\u2019s most innovative companies would move to those countries. This could force other countries to adopt crypto-friendly regulations themselves, creating a powerful domino effect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the end of 2017, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko signed a \u201cDigital Economy Development Ordinance,\u201d aimed at developing the country\u2019s IT sector and attracting blockchain technology companies, capital and talent from all over the world. \u201cBelarus becomes the first state in the world which opens up broad opportunities for the use of the blockchain technology,\u201d said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3509,"featured_media":22669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[392,3273,2598,404],"class_list":{"0":"post-22668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-adoption","9":"tag-alexander-lukashenko","10":"tag-belarus","11":"tag-russia"},"author_data":{"id":3509,"name":"Giulio Prisco","nicename":"giulio-prisco","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2d091b908741b627d89036dd43748bb5c5edcfe9f805501703e2c3af34dadfca?s=96&d=robohash&r=g"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/cryptocurrency-friendly-regulations-in-belarus-could-attract-foreign-capital-and-icos.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3509"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}