Legalize it!

Legalize it! And this time it will not be about marijuana, which has recently appeared a competitor in the context of the struggle for legalization. Today, I’ll briefly review the news of cryptocurrency legalization in different corners of our blue planet. And I’m going to start with my native country - Ukraine.

We have some positive Bitcoin news from Ukraine, where cryptocurrency mining for taxation purposes is on the way of legalization by the Ukraine’s Minister of Economy and expected to become law pretty soon being included in the state register of economic activities.This is another serious breakthrough for the cryptocurrency as a whole, in that the Ukrainian government may to bring cryptocurrency mining out of the shadow. On the other hand, it is looking for how to collect more “budget revenues” being that any economic activity in the country is taxed. Without fail it will become the new norm in country. So far, Japan is the only major country to effectively legalize this new form of money and is a very important region when it comes to cryptocurrency and blockchain.

It now seems Japan is preparing to accept ICO as well. Local legislators have open guidelines, including identifying investors to prevent money laundering, restricting unfair trade practices and ramping up cybersecurity efforts. These proposals come as China and South Korea regulators toughen up on cryptocurrencies to take under control possible speculation in the arising market. All the ICOs were banned last year to regards of illegal activity and speculative investing in the space. For now, the proposed rules will be reviewed by Japan’s FSA. It is evident Japan is rather open-minded when it comes to cryptomarket and ICOs, and this is quite different from other Asian countries.

Also, like Ukraine, the Latvian government is going to operate cryptocurrency within a legal framework. Naturally, for the purpose of additional cash inflow in the budget. This initiative was announced during a meeting with deputies from the Parliamentary Budget and Taxation Committee. Some government members reminded that cryptocurrencies are not considered a legal means and are something like financial pyramids. Also no tax is currently due on crypto purchases of goods and services in Latvia. So, we wait for the decision of the Latvian legislators.

There are also a lot of news coming from Russia, but I have no desire to review them, since there is no more deceitful government in the world than in this police state that does not value international treaties and its obligations, or even its own inhabitants. Blocking of Internet resources, social networks and messengers (the last one is Telegram), arrests of bloggers, unleashing wars around the globe - these are the realities of today's Russia.

I wish you all a good weekend and may the force be with you!