Uzbekistan’s President Issues New Decree Regarding Crypto Legalization

Legalizing cryptocurrencies has been up for debate in the economies around the world lately, even with the decrease in value in so many different coins. President Mirziyoyev recently signed a decree in Uzbekistan that allows individuals and businesses to gather licenses for trading and other crypto activities. The decree specifically noted that the country would legalize crypto, incorporate blockchain technology, regulate local crypto mining, and hold smart contracts.

In the document, the decree was titled, “On measures for the development of the digital economy in the Republic of Uzbekistan.” It specifically refers to technology involved with blockchain, artificial intelligence, supercomputers, and other activities with crypto.

The only way for the crypto industry to get into Uzbekistan’s economy is to follow some important tasks that the executive brand has issues. First, they want to seamlessly introduce and expand the reach of the crypto assets in their economy, along with the circulations of mining, smart contracts, crowdfunding, and blockchain. All of these tools have been outlined in the decree and may be able to benefit investors and entrepreneurs. Furthermore, they determined that the entities run on their soil have no obligation towards taxation and the income that users earn is not taxable. If a platform wants to run within Uzbekistan, they will not have the same regulations as fiat currency locally.

Entities that create crypto opportunities will be subject to a new licensing regime, according to the decree. The platforms that want to run will start being issued licenses in October of this year, helping to prevent fraud, and ensuring that nothing is running without the government’s knowledge. They have assigned the National Agency for Project Management the task of handling any licensing concerns or audits.

To create proposals for Uzbekistan to review, they have recruited NAPM and Mininfocom, which is their IT and telecom ministry. They have to develop the conditions for the crypto platforms that plan to work within the country, though draft amendments will be due two months from now. In this quest to digitize their country, they also plan to develop training courses that will be for blockchain professionals. These professionals will learn about implementing blockchain as it relates to foreign organizations, like the Central Asian Republic’s platforms. All of these changes are scheduled for January 1^st, 2021.

Unfortunately, even though Uzbekistan has setup all of their own deadlines, they are presently behind on their goals. Originally, the draft for the legalization of “electronic money” was due by September 1^st, but it is uncertain whether they will create the draft in time.

Though the previous opinion in Tashkent have been negative towards cryptocurrency, the changing industry has somehow given them a more positive outlook. With the new restrictions and regulations to improve security, citizens are showing support, rather than disdain.