Estonia license

[purpurato]

Estonia is one of the few countries with crypto friendly legislation and many companies registered there, however recent changes to legislation, already approved by parliament will require to have physical presence there.
https://medium.com/comistar/aml-officer-for-estonian-crypto-exchanges-8f8ec34168fa

Is there anyone around who knows more on the subject? What are all this companies doing, change country or open an office there?
Was consulting on getting this license, but having second thoughts now.

[LeGaulois]

You have to designate someone 'to represent' the company, similar to a trustee(?), of course, the person has to live there. The person won't have any special rights on the company, just representing it. They use this method too when creating a  fake company for tax evasion and alike. I've even seen an old woman representing over 300 companies in the Panama papers scandal lol.
Of course, it is legal.

- Either you find someone you trust enough or you can also use a local notary if you prefer to be 'safe'. I don't believe it has a high cost

- Another solution but I'm not 100% sure if it works with the administrative papers, is to rent a virtual office, you will have a local address there, you can get it for ~30$ per month with Regus and other alternatives.

You can contact them in English via email, they will give you a more accurate answer

[purpurato]

Hey thanks for your reply, I believe this could be done but I didn't foresee this kind of expenditure. On the other hand it is highly possible with my profile that FIU (financial intelligence unit) will require a personal interview in order to check compliance issues. This all adds up and starts to feel a little too much for my type of business.
Maybe this can be of some help to people trying to get that license, I will be glad to share my experience if someone is on that path.

[buwaytress]

Basically, people have been taking advantage of the e-residency program and how easy it is to get a license there for crypto exchanges and similar -- the real value is being able to passport that license to the rest of the EU and EEA thanks to Estonia's membership.

The new changes reflect just how the government has probably gotten told off by regulators, and partly due to AMLD5 this month, which basically aims to make tax avoidance illegal (currently on the fringes of being legal).

That said, as LeGaulois points out, it's perfectly still possible to open a trust company there as your legal (and physical) representation. So you can avoid that physical interview -- but the license won't be under your name, but that of your trustee.

[posi]

The new amendment was because of the AMLD5 laws but its good that the law came into picture because i can count to atleast 2 project which had genuine license from the Estonian e-service and the project are no where to find now and with the EU countries are planning to take the use of crypto to another level this year things like the AMLD5 is needed for investors security

[meduse]

I'm about to get my license. The most important thing when you get your license is that your contact person lives in Estonia. You should also have a clean criminal record.

You should also have documents ready, like:
  
   - AML and CTF guidelines
   - Rules of procedure and internal audit rules compiled pursuant to Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act

and if you do not live in the European zone, you should have a visa ready.

And as the others have said, the new rules will start on 10 March 2020

[purpurato]

Well one part is the license, but then you need to get a bank account. I'm inquiring about that and it doesn't look easy, in Estonia for example banks are not servicing crypto related companies.
There are other jurisdictions on the EEA that offer bank accounts, but in some cases, Switzerland for example, the fees are prohibitive (for my business model anyway).