Russia is moving towards cryptocurrency legislation as the nation has created a bill on digital rights for the development of the digital economy. The State Duma (Russia’s lower legislative house) has adopted in the second reading amendments to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation on digital rights.
Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the State Duma, explained: “This is a new area for our rights, because it is important for us to consolidate the basic concepts.” It follows on from President Vladimir Putin’s address to make this economy a “priority”. He wants crypto-related regulations in place by 1 July 2019.
This latest step fixes the concept of digital rights. For example, it says: “Implementation, disposal, including transfer, pledge, encumbrance of a digital right by other means or restriction of disposal of digital law are possible only in the information system without recourse to a third party.” The draft law introduces “certainty” in the use of “self-fulfilling” transactions, i.e. smart contracts.
This is where it gets interesting for fintech, as the draft law complements the Civil Code of the Russian Federation with the rule that a transaction may provide for the fulfilment by its parties of obligations upon the occurrence of certain circumstances – through the use of information technologies. That is, the performance will be made by the information system itself.