Is Armenia a new "crypto-valley"?

Legality of mining in Armenia

Position of Armenian authorities regarding cryptocurrency regulation began to confidently shift towards liberalization during January-February of 2018. The foregoing contradicts earlier statements of the authorities concerning various risks of investing in cryptocurrencies.

First, Edmond Marukyan, the deputy of Armenian parliament from the faction "Vykhod", made a proposal at the plenary session on regulation of mining in the state on February 6. Moreover, Mr. Marukyan also registered a draft law "On digital technologies", the text of which describes all possible pros and cons of such decision-making. In addition to legalization of mining, the draft law contains some other amendments aimed at regulating the market of cryptocurrencies in Armenia as a whole.

According to the provisions of this document, any citizen who has reached the age of 18 will have the right to be engaged in mining activities. In addition, no permissions or licenses will be required for implementation of such activities. The very activity on mining such currencies will be temporarily exempted from taxation until 2023.

Armenia - a special Free Economic Zone

Recently, the company American Blockchain Forum (ABF) prepared and presented a draft law on creation of a special free economic zone (FEZ) with specific preferential terms and conditions of doing business for Hi-tech start-ups to Mr. Serzh Sargsyan, the President of Armenia, and members of special working group of the government. It is expected that innovative projects that will operate using blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, etc. will be accumulated on the territory of the FEZ.

Implementation of this idea is expected throughout 2018-2019. The first step will be creation of an advanced technology center to be called the "Silicon Valley” on the territory of the FEZ. This center should be a kind of launching pad for creation and development of various hi-tech projects from around the world. According to the opinion of Armenian authorities, such decision will help attract a large number of investments in the country's economy, improve the image of the state in the international arena and will have a number of other advantages.

It should be reminded that earlier the President of Belarus also signed the Decree "On the development of the digital economy", which legalized the cryptocurrencies market in the country, determined the competencies of individuals and legal entities regarding cryptocurrency, legalized mining, etc. More details can be found in the article on our website of December 25, 2017.