Crypto regulation in Kazakhstan.

Crypto regulation in Kazakhstan.

The authorities of Kazakhstan have decided to take seriously the regulation of the activities of cryptominers and crypto traders. Over the past few years, the popularity of cryptocurrencies in the republic has grown exponentially. Due to low utility tariffs for electricity, even by the standards of the CIS, and the complete absence of regulatory laws, the country has taken a leading position in mining and cashing cryptocurrencies (often “under the hood”). On October 12, the lower parliamentary house passed a law according to which any cryptocurrency activity is now subject to mandatory licensing. For such activities, from now on, you will have to create a legal entity, obtain a license and register with the tax office. The bill itself is long-term, it will still be written down and worked out, so far there are no details. The first real changes will be introduced only by the beginning of 2024. The authorities are aware that such a decision can be perceived negatively, so they promise to provide huge support to licensed crypto traders.

bizmanana

Last Saturday, September 17, representatives of the RLA team attended the #bizmanana conference in Prague. We thank the organizers – Franch and Board, as well as all the speakers, for an extremely rich and interesting program!

Steps to efficiency.

Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said he wants to make the company 20% more efficient and that could include headcount cuts as it reckons with a slew of economic challenges as well as years of rapid hiring. However, prior to that, employees early in the year had given the company’s leadership particularly poor marks on pay, promotions and execution, citing the company’s growing bureaucracy, which executives acknowledged at the time. “Across everything we do, we can be slower to make decisions,” Pichai said Tuesday. “You look at it end-to-end and figure out how to make the company 20% more productive.” Pichai also gave more specific examples of how he hopes to do that. He gave a past example of aligning YouTube Music and Google Play Music into one product.

Etherium 2.0 Tests.

The value of Ethereum cryptocurrency exceeded $1900 after the team of blockchain developers reported on the successful update of the Goerli test network. After the test network will be transferred to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) model – the upcoming event is called Merge, and with it the classic cryptocurrency mining of this currency will be a thing of the past. The Ethereum 2.0 network will get higher performance, significantly increased energy efficiency – electricity consumption will be reduced by more than 99% and scalability will increase. The main Ethereum blockchain is scheduled to migrate to the new algorithm on September 19, 2022.

Current Currency situation.

What strange times we live in…

$1 is worth more than €1 for the first time since 2002. According to the Forex Capital Markets trading platform, the minimum price of €1 was $0.99 (-0.37%). On July 14, the euro exchange rate updated the anti-record, continuing to fall below parity against the dollar. At the minimum, the value of the European currency fell to $0.9952. The dollar on Thursday evening is growing against other major world currencies, but the pace of growth has slowed down slightly, according to trading data.

Cryptocrush

Cryptocurrency markets have crashed to record lows. On June 13 alone, global market capitalization fell 12% to $977 billion. Crypto lending platform Celsius has stopped withdrawing funds and Binance has suspended operations in bitcoin, crypto investors are complaining about losing millions, which is understandable. For two weeks, all crypto owners have been waiting for the situation to normalize, but, as most major analysts assure, trust in digital currencies has already been undermined, which means that without another high-profile event, nothing will change for the better. El Salvador, the country that recognized bitcoin as the national currency, is likely to have a default. Due to the sharp decline in interest in mining, video cards have become much cheaper, and electricity consumption in countries where mining has been actively engaged has fallen by 15-30%.

Universal connector

Let’s digress a little from the global frightening news, and talk about something pleasant. EU approved a law on the obligatory universal USB-C connector in mobile devices. The law will come into force in the fall of 2024 and will apply to any smart technology. All that remains is the formal approval of the law by the Parliament and the Council of the EU at the end of this year. So far, this is not yet official information, but if it happens, then all smartphones, tablets, netbooks, photo and video cameras and portable gaming devices will fall under it. Including Apple and Nintendo, which are notorious for making money on unique branded cables and accessories for their devices.

Business Networking

In the current situation, the RLA SERVICES team is working hard to strengthen and develop a joint business with entrepreneurs from Ukraine. Today we attended @bigmoney.university business conference in Prague. Many thanks to all the organizers and participants of the event. In particular, thanks to @chernyak_yevgeny for being able to participate in the event in person! Good luck to everyone during this difficult time! Glory to Ukraine!

Current State of Estonia

On February 23, 2022, Estonia adopted an updated version of the law on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing. The requirements for authorized capital have been increased: instead of 12,000 euros, the new minimum authorized capital is 100,000 euros for organizations providing “wallet”, exchange and issuance services, and 250,000 euros for organizations engaged in crypto-transfers. The state duty was increased from 3,300 euros to 10,000. Mandatory requirements for annual audits, as well as internal audits, were introduced. The new Law entered into force on March 15, 2022. The new requirements must be applied by market participants by 06/15/2022. Simultaneously with the adoption of new rules, the state began to check and clean up the crypto business, more than 500 licenses of crypto companies that violated the licensing conditions were revoked. Thus, having gradually “tightened the screws”, Estonia is currently losing its attractiveness as a “Crypto Mecca” for medium and small businesses.