The initiative was supported by the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Energy. The Bank of Russia is against, since the proposal is aimed at the emergence of new "monetary surrogates"
The Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Energy supported the idea of equating mining with entrepreneurial activity, Izvestia reports. According to the publication, the initiative was partially supported by the Ministry of Finance, and the Bank of Russia opposed the regulation of cryptocurrency mining. The regulator justified this by the fact that it cannot support initiatives aimed at the emergence of new "monetary surrogates".
The Ministry of Economic Development is already discussing the regulation of mining with industry representatives. The department believes that the recognition of the mining of cryptocurrencies by entrepreneurship will allow taxing the income from this activity. The Ministry of Energy also reacted positively to the idea. The Ministry of Finance considered that the issue of mining regulation should be discussed in the context of the formation of a legal framework in the field of cryptocurrencies.
The proposal to equate the mining of cryptocurrencies with entrepreneurship was put forward in September by the chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market Anatoly Aksakov. Later, the initiative was supported by the governor of the Irkutsk region Igor Kobzev. Russian oilmen also proposed to start mining cryptocurrencies in the fields.
In mid-October, it became known that Russia took the third place in the world in bitcoin mining. The country's share in the total computing power of miners reached 11% in August, up from 6.8% in April.