Let my crypto go VS Stop scammers please — a debate over crypto legislation in Ukraine

This Tuesday there was a minor crypto-event in Ukraine, that was visited by SNTR team member: It’s name was “A prospect of Crypto Assets Regulations”. Silent Notary copywriter silently visited the event, took silent notes and silent selfies with the participants. The participants were slightly creeped out. Anyway, we hope it is at least somewhat insightful on what is happening on crypto regulations around the world. The event was a public debate between “the market guy” and “the government guy” about what direction should we go.

In the market corner (left) there is Stanislav Podyachev — founding partner of a consulting company “Blockchain Lab”. In the government corner there is Libanov Maxim — a member of National Committee for Securities and Stock Markets.

The debate was fast paced and somewhat heated so here is a short summary of the stances that did not change during the debate.

Stanislav Podyachev:

You don’t understand blockchain economy. No one understands blockchain economy. Everything certain about blockchain economy is it’s high-tech, rapidly growing and evolving. How about we just let it grow, see how it goes and then decide how do we regulate and tax it.

Maxim Libanov:

Cryptocurrencies and tokens are similar to securities. So we should regulate them accordingly. We don’t want people to get scammed with ICO because that will hurt everyone. We don’t want criminals laundering their money because that will also hurt everyone. All crypto-fiat exchange points have to be regulated.

Summary:

On the upside they are not going to regulate or tax crypto-to-crypto transactions and buying and selling goods and services for crypto. Fiat withdrawn profit is the only thing that is going to be taxed with a 5% tax for individuals and companies. That sounds like Christmas.

On the low point — the discussion showed that government regulators have no idea what is the difference between utility and security tokens and why do we actually need these concepts.

In total — if the legislation will go as it is then Ukraine crypto industry will blast through the roof. Probably to the Moon. But realistically expect some sneaky regulations changes that will not allow this to happen.