One of the countries which is not really fond of perspectives given by crypto environment is Estonia. The rules presented by government are rather strict, presenting the decisions on the brink of banishing crypto, so many were supposed to expect for soon close of virtual trading platforms. But the announcements made in the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022 state that the further policy applied by Estonia will not include complete restriction of crypto activity, presenting instead other of solutions.
The reason behind opposition to crypto
Although Estonian governmental structures were among the first that accepted the blockchain technology and started using its potential, the general conditions of crypto operations were not something they were glad to apply. The principles of anonymity and inability to track the transactions performed by the users became the problem to the officials, as the possibility of money laundering or financing of terrorism could not be excluded in such case. For that reason, the law projects are created to try to define the course of the country in the issue of crypto assets which can balance the advantages and disadvantages given.
What can we expect from crypto policy of Estonia now
The latest statements of law policy explain that the government prefers to apply additional measures of safety when presenting the licenses to allow crypto operations on the territory of Estonia. With the new establishment taking care of criptocurrency operations instead of FIU the right goes to ESFA, the status of crypto assets will also be defined in a more concrete manner, making it more rightful as the mean of investment. There may also be the possibility of declaring the existence before licenses as inactive and making the applicants go through the procedures for acceptance once again. The new demands include the increase of the equity in more than twenty times, the expanded list of documentation attached, more strict checks for law-biding among the personnel and more. Moreover, the necessity of registration in the separate lists according to the instruments presenting has appeared, each category should be mentioned in corresponding registry and the same company can be mentioned in several categories for each given service.
But not only the companies presenting the services are influenced, but the people receiving them, will experience the changes, too, although in an indirect manner. The governmental structures leave the right to request for the identity of private holders of crypto assets, therefore removing the notion of anonymity in crypto environment, making it similar to the banking system with the blockchain characteristics. That is why crypto status is kind of controversial in the country – despite blockchain being accepted as part of the structure, the main principles of operations within crypto environment are removed, making it look as intermediary between acceptance of advantages and neglect of problematic issues.
