8 February Member of the General Council, Head of the Expert Center for Criminal Law Policy and Enforcement of Judicial Acts "Business Russia» and project ambassador “Business Duty Officer” Ekaterina Avdeeva took part in the Moskovsky Komsomolets press conference on the topic “Not Gray Mining: effective methods of influencing illegal cryptocurrencies".
Since July 2018 the number of miners has tripled. Cryptocurrencies disguise themselves as ordinary consumers and place illegal farms in residential buildings, sometimes even in public schools. While the Ministry of Finance is discussing the introduction of a fee for miners of digital currency, and the law on mining is only being prepared for the first reading, such illegal activities cause significant damage to the economy of the regions, and overloading power grids can cause a range of problems, from emergency shutdowns to fires..
“Mining has already entered our lives quite tightly., and a total ban risks leading to the growth of both the illegal farms themselves, and the damage they cause. It is advisable to legally regulate this activity, make it taxable and define the rules, on which miners should act. It will be beneficial for society as well., and for the state, – said Ekaterina Avdeeva.
In this regard, the first task is to determine, what is mining. Important to consider, that this is not a domestic activity. “Mining is not only an increased consumption of electricity, but also certain noise and thermal effects, which, when it comes to apartment buildings, create discomfort for other residents. Besides, located in residential buildings, cryptocurrencies unreasonably receive electricity at preferential rates”, - explained Ekaterina Avdeeva. Today, judicial practice is developing on the side of networks, who collect lost money. From the point of view of society and the state, it is preferable to apply differentiated tariffs to miners, and consider introducing an additional tax, based on the amount of electricity consumed, by analogy with the tax on the extraction of minerals, because it is very difficult to track the income from the subsequent sale of received CFAs”, - Ekaterina Avdeeva suggested.
Ekaterina Avdeeva named cases of unauthorized connection and organization of illegal farms as the next important problem., which are already in the criminal law plane. Theft of electricity can be the basis for prosecution under. "b" h. 2 Art. 165 Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Causing property damage by deceit or breach of trust". There are precedents in the practice of Rosseti Moscow Region, when, by a court decision, unscrupulous consumers were held criminally liable with a fine of more than 1,5 million rubles.
The issue of taxation of miners in connection with the receipt of income from the subsequent sale of the produced digital product remains debatable.. “Digital financial assets should not become a privileged area outside the fiscal policy of the state. It is advisable to gradually regulate mining and the digital financial assets themselves, since in the first case we are talking about the infrastructure component, and in the second - about receiving income due to the circulation of cryptocurrency. It is important to understand, that now digital financial assets are largely used in the illegal field: legalization of income, that is criminally obtained, transfer of funds to finance criminal activity, giving bribes, etc.”, - emphasized Ekaterina Avdeeva.
Thus, legislative regulation of mining should be carried out in a complex and take into account all of the listed components. At the same time, we are talking not only and not so much about punitive and repressive measures., but also about stimulating the transition of such activities to the legal field. “Stimulative and fiscal measures together should bring results for the benefit of society and the state”, – concluded Ekaterina Avdeeva.
