Russian Blockchain Alliance Ups Ante Against Scammers, With Whitelist

Despite delay in passing the cryptocurrency regulation bill, the Russian Association of Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain (RACIB) has successfully created a registry of whitelisted enterprises which offer blockchain related products or services.

The whitelist includes companies which are involved in cryptocurrency mining, investment, training, marketing, legal, and ICO related services. Notably, Russian entities and individuals have lost more than 270 million rubles (approximately $4.30 million) to scams and projects which never took off. Therefore, the association has started tracking practically impossible and fake ICO projects. RACIB hopes the registry will enable cryptocurrency sector participants to identify trustworthy partners.

Regarding the whitelist RACIB stated

“The list of trusted companies will allow Russian and foreign market participants to base their work on trusted organizations and minimize the risk of fraud in the creation and development of Russian or foreign business in the field of mining, trading with cryptocurrency, blockchain technology and ICO.”

Fifty companies in whitelist

RACIB revealed that the registry “consists exclusively of organizations that have undergone voluntary verification of reliability.” The verification criteria include but not limited to “financial sustainability, experience and business reputation, lack of judicial judgments, availability of licenses and certificates (if necessary), [and] no arrears of taxes and fees.”

While mentioning that about 30 applicants are being verified, RACIB stated that the registry includes more than 50 companies. According to RACIB, the whitelisted companies are “trusted organizations which have already passed the verification procedure.”

RACIB will consider the online application from any blockchain related Russian legal entity. The association further stated that “The average period for document review is 10 days. At this time, third-party verification is not performed.”

The association is also planning to conduct additional testing and certification in three areas: “certification for traders of crypto assets, certification for mining equipment suppliers and certification for mining farms.”

Delay in Crypto bill

The legal framework for the regulation of cryptocurrencies and ICOs in Russia is not yet prepared. The bill “On Digital Financial Assets” cleared the first reading in the State Duma in May.
It can be remembered that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the bill for regulation of cryptocurrencies and ICOs to be finalized in July. However, Bankir reported last week that the “consideration of draft laws on cryptocurrency was postponed to September.”

Elina Sidorenko, head of the State Duma’s interdepartmental working group tasked with risk assessment of cryptocurrencies, explained the reason for the delay in a discussion with Hash Telegraph. She stated that the Russian cryptocurrency laws will be adopted after the “FATF [Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering] standards are developed with respect to the risks of using cryptocurrency.”

Elina explained that lack of FATF policies will make it difficult to adopt national legislation. The draft of the FATF document was expected to be studied during the June 27-29 session. However, it was later postponed to September.

Now in the State Duma there are several bills at once. And they are very different approaches to the definition of cryptocurrencies and tokens…The Central Bank believes that cryptocurrencies and tokens now do not have sufficient economic resources to function fully in free economic circulation.