Uruguayan Lawmaker Proposes Bill to Treat Crypto as Legal Tender

[LFC_Bitcoin]

The project, presented by ruling party senator Juan Sartori, includes a regulatory framework for crypto exchanges and miners.

A senator from Uruguay has introduced a bill to make cryptocurrencies legal tender in the South American country.

The bill, which was presented on Tuesday by Sen. Juan Sartori, seeks to provide “legal, financial and fiscal security in the business derived from the production and commercialization” of cryptocurrencies.

“Crypto assets will be recognized and accepted by law and applicable in any legal business. They will be considered valid means of payment,” the project states.

Sartori’s bill would establish that cryptocurrencies “are products of free sale by those entities and individuals who wish to commercialize them,” and states that any natural or legal person “may receive and/or send funds in legal tender from and to their own bank accounts or those of licensed companies.”

If the bill becomes law, the government would issue a “first license” that would enable companies to trade crypto assets on exchanges. A second license would allow “storing, holding or safekeeping crypto assets,” while a third would be used to issue crypto assets or utility tokens with “financial characteristics.”

According to the bill, Uruguay’s executive branch would grant the licenses to entities that are in compliance with anti-money laundering secretariat (Senaclaft) and the Central Bank of Uruguay. For other transactions, the “use of all these instruments will be free and will not require prior consent, permits or licenses.”

Sartori’s bill also stipulates the regulation of crypto mining. Miners wouldn’t need a special license like a doctor, but would need permits from Uruguay’s Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining in order to operate.

The measure also includes the “promotion of technical training for electrical, civil and computer engineers in the generation of virtual assets.”

According to the bill, Senaclaft “will keep a registry of virtual asset service providers” and of those individuals or legal entities that wish to carry out activities of generation and commercialization of virtual assets.

Sartori belongs to the ruling National Party. He ran for the National Party’s nomination for president in 2019.

In the Senate, the National Party and its allies, which form a coalition named Coalición Multicolor, hold the majority, with 17 of the 30 seats.

To date only one country has adopted bitcoin as legal tender: El Salvador, which approved a bill earlier this year.




https://twitter.com/juansartoriuy/status/1422567884916772866?s=21



Article Credit:

https://www.coindesk.com/uruguay-crypto-bill-legal-tender-juan-sartori

Andrés Engler
Aug 4, 2021 at 7:57 p.m. UTC
Updated Aug 4, 2021 at 8:27 p.m. UTC

[romero121]

That truly support the Uruguay citizens free to use bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. By the time through the bill it is also into discussion about the law for mining of cryptocurrencies. When cryptocurrency usage is legalized automatically mining must be taken into consideration. If not this would be a big issue.

In recent days Iran faced such an issue. It legalized the usage of cryptocurrency, but there is nothing specific about cryptocurrency mining. When China closed doors for mining, more miners were moved to Iran due to the low electricity consumption charge. The same has resulted in making the government think of banning cryptocurrency usage. Because, without any proper licensing more than 85% miners are run. This illegal form of mining has caused severe power failure issue and the government isn't able to meet the needs. Only 5% miners are running in a legitimate manner.

[uneng]

I think nothing of that was needed. It just creates more difficulties for who wants to invest and work with crypto currency. So far, crypto universe has been a great place to be because it is accessible and easy to be introduced, especially due to not being legal tender. Look how absurd is that proposal of being necessary to have the government's permission to start mining crypto currency.
Those who have been here since the beginning should be proud of being part of such a wonderful age of crypto currency. Because now things are just going to get worse and worse with growing governmental influence and regulations that don't respect the individuals and their appeal for less bureaucracy.

[Obito]

Another good week, this good news about encryption, these developing countries will all be excellent potential users of cryptocurrency. It solved a lot of problems for them. In the future, it is very likely that Bitcoin will be in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

I am sure that it's going to met with an opposition, remember that when El Salvador finally did it, rally happened and people were not happy and satisfied with it saying that it's useless or something like that. I don't get the last part that you are saying, are you saying there's no crypto trend in those continents and region? I am pretty there are some countries in those region that already supports cryptocurrency.

[cabron]

Another good week, this good news about encryption, these developing countries will all be excellent potential users of cryptocurrency. It solved a lot of problems for them. In the future, it is very likely that Bitcoin will be in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

I am sure that it's going to met with an opposition, remember that when El Salvador finally did it, rally happened and people were not happy and satisfied with it saying that it's useless or something like that. I don't get the last part that you are saying, are you saying there's no crypto trend in those continents and region? I am pretty there are some countries in those region that already supports cryptocurrency.

Argentina has a long history of supporting DASH and I think also BSV.

They saw the result in El Salvador I guess it's a positive result for them as well. This is what could be SEC is avoiding to happen but it's now happening and hopefully, all governments should just take it the way they do. The whole of Latin America should also be going in this direction than trying to control everything like they could prevent transactions from happening. 

[Darker45]

Another good week, this good news about encryption, these developing countries will all be excellent potential users of cryptocurrency. It solved a lot of problems for them. In the future, it is very likely that Bitcoin will be in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

I am sure that it's going to met with an opposition, remember that when El Salvador finally did it, rally happened and people were not happy and satisfied with it saying that it's useless or something like that. I don't get the last part that you are saying, are you saying there's no crypto trend in those continents and region? I am pretty there are some countries in those region that already supports cryptocurrency.

Don't worry about opposition; that's normal and expected. When you introduce significant change, it is almost impossible it won't be met with a certain degree of resistance. There'll always be people who get affected or whose businesses get disrupted with the new system.

Yes, there was a rally against the adoption of Bitcoin as a legal tender in El Salvador, but the rally was definitely blown out by the media. On the ground, it was simply a gathering of a handful of people.

From the angles preferred by the media:


https://twitter.com/Bitcoinbeach/status/1419197514264113161/photo/1

https://twitter.com/Bitcoinbeach/status/1419191321886003203/photo/2

A different angle:


https://twitter.com/Bitcoinbeach/status/1419189554175569920/photo/1

[Charles-Tim]

Uruguayan Lawmaker Proposes Bill to Treat Crypto as Legal Tender

I know misunderstanding contents or even incorrect contents can be taken into media and news platforms, but about the bill introduced by senator Juan Sartori, it is not about crypto to be treated as a legal tender in Uruguah, the bill only cover businesses in which cryptocurrencies will be accepted by law and can be used in legal businesses.

Satori joins a growing list of politicians from South American and Spanish-speaking countries that are seeking to bring crypto adoption into the mainstream. The Senator is not proposing the use of crypto as legal tender as in El Salvador, however.

CORRECTION (Aug. 4, 2021, 21:45 UTC): An earlier version of this article said Sartori’s bill would treat crypto as legal tender. The lawmaker later said it would only allow businesses to accept crypto as payments.

However, the bill stops short of actually treating cryptocurrencies as legal tender, he told CoinDesk.

[Roy Asher]

Another good week, this good news about encryption, these developing countries will all be excellent potential users of cryptocurrency. It solved a lot of problems for them. In the future, it is very likely that Bitcoin will be in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

I am sure that it's going to met with an opposition, remember that when El Salvador finally did it, rally happened and people were not happy and satisfied with it saying that it's useless or something like that. I don't get the last part that you are saying, are you saying there's no crypto trend in those continents and region? I am pretty there are some countries in those region that already supports cryptocurrency.

I think the encryption field will develop in these fields in the future. Opposition is normal. Salvadoran citizens who were the first to propose the use of currency partly opposed this policy. This is not surprising, just as some governments still disapprove of Bitcoin. Similarly, but these opportunities will be transferred to these other countries.

[Cindella]

Cryptocurrency has solved many problems for many developing countries. They are aware of the positive impact and changes that El Salvador has made of Bitcoin as a legal currency, and the proposed bill hopes to be an economic revolution for the country and contribute to the country's economic development. Cryptocurrency is the perfect system to protect them from the devaluation of local currencies.

[masterrex]

It's another good news, from the South American country, and if it was successfully crafted into law, l am sure many countries in the region will follow, it was started by El Salvador now it was copied by several countries in the region.
IMO, I believe that there is no problem if the crypto industry will be regulated for me it is better compared to banning the entire crypto industry like what is happening in some countries particularly China. So let us hope that the resolution will be successful for the betterment of this industry.  

[Vishnu.Reang]

I think nothing of that was needed. It just creates more difficulties for who wants to invest and work with crypto currency. So far, crypto universe has been a great place to be because it is accessible and easy to be introduced, especially due to not being legal tender. Look how absurd is that proposal of being necessary to have the government's permission to start mining crypto currency.
Those who have been here since the beginning should be proud of being part of such a wonderful age of crypto currency. Because now things are just going to get worse and worse with growing governmental influence and regulations that don't respect the individuals and their appeal for less bureaucracy.

I don't understand. The proposal was to remove obstacles and not to create them. If Bitcoin is recognized as a legal tender, then it will make the lives of cryptocurrency users much more easier. They don't need to pay capital gains tax on profits from Bitcoin, since it will be considered as a currency (rather than an asset). Making payments with Bitcoin will get easier, if it is recognized as legal tender. On the other hand, in countries such as the United States, it is extremely difficult to deal with cryptocurrency. Since it is recognized as an asset, every transaction needs to be reported in the income tax return, with all the details. It can be really tedious.

[Kiley33]

There are many good news about cryptocurrency recently:

• Google started accepting Bitcoin ads
• Uruguayan legislators propose bill to treat cryptocurrency as legal tender

I think other countries will follow suit soon. But in this case, some new laws and regulations may be issued to regulate people's use of Bitcoin, because the government does not want people to be out of control. But the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
The good news these days should make the price of Bitcoin fluctuate.

[DapanasFruit]

My special commendation to the leaders of Uruguay for recognizing a very good opportunity presented by Bitcoin and cryptocurrency where they as a nation can take a special part of. I am expecting that this bill if approved can paved the way for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining operations to be legalized in the country, including cryptocurrency exchanges and related businesses that can be headquartered or based in Uruguay. This is not a big nation in terms of population and economy but they can now make it a big part in the cryptocurrency map ahead of other big countries. I am sure that CZ of Binance would be happy to make a big operation in Uruguay.

[FatFork]

Either way, if this legislation passes the Uruguayan Senat, it will be great news for the crypto community and another bullish sign. As other countries in the region follow suit, I hope.
It looks like the whole of South America could become a crypto haven. 

[dkbit98]

Go Uruguay go!
I won't be happy about this news until I see this confirmed, but if this bill comes true than Uruguay will be the second Bitcoin domino that will create cascade of events around the world, all starting from South and Latin America.
Bitcoin Miners in Uruguay would still need a special permit from government but it's not as bad as in other countries like China that banned mining totally.
I am expecting that we are going to see political parties with some people complaining about this bill, in similar way like they did in El Salvador recently, I guess some people just love fiat currency more than Bitcoin.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

From a proposal to a real approval is far but it give us hope that there will be more nations consider Bitcoin or crypto as legal tender. Uruguay is a bigger nation than El Salvador.

It takes three years from 2017 to 2020 to bring big institutions to crypto market and I hope that after Bitcoin goes to mainstream in the last two years, the process toward legal tender will be achieved in less than three years. Perhaps in 2022, we will see something big with legal tender for crypto globally.

It will not be a rosy journey and there will be many challenges from governments before cryptocurrency can be treated as legal tender on bigger scale, globally.

[avikz]

This kind of new actually excites me more than the news of a random company buying millions of dollars worth of bitcoin. Because if a country legalises the bitcoin, that will bring granular level adoption by the mass. That's exactly what we want. That exactly what Mr. Nakamoto would have wanted. Bitcoin is not an asset to sit at a corporate coffer. Rather it needs to sit in a layman's wallets.

I understand this is just a proposal and not a bill yet. But even that baby steps matter. We need to remember that a simple ripple has the power to become a tornado. Let's wait for that day!

[uneng]

I think nothing of that was needed. It just creates more difficulties for who wants to invest and work with crypto currency. So far, crypto universe has been a great place to be because it is accessible and easy to be introduced, especially due to not being legal tender. Look how absurd is that proposal of being necessary to have the government's permission to start mining crypto currency.
Those who have been here since the beginning should be proud of being part of such a wonderful age of crypto currency. Because now things are just going to get worse and worse with growing governmental influence and regulations that don't respect the individuals and their appeal for less bureaucracy.

I don't understand. The proposal was to remove obstacles and not to create them. If Bitcoin is recognized as a legal tender, then it will make the lives of cryptocurrency users much more easier. They don't need to pay capital gains tax on profits from Bitcoin, since it will be considered as a currency (rather than an asset). Making payments with Bitcoin will get easier, if it is recognized as legal tender. On the other hand, in countries such as the United States, it is extremely difficult to deal with cryptocurrency. Since it is recognized as an asset, every transaction needs to be reported in the income tax return, with all the details. It can be really tedious.

The governments want to make people believe regulations will make crypto currency users' lives easier, but it's just propaganda. I can't say for now if there will be less taxes if bitcoin was considered currency instead of asset by authorities, because less taxes is never the goal of governments. They always find a gap to introduce something new that you must pay, justifying it is for your own good.
For bitcoin, neutral/gray area was the best moment in history, when people could deal with it without any complications and government's intromission like the ones blatantly seen in USA right now. And I believe the difficulties faced in USA aren't due to the lack of regulations, but the introduction of abusive ones.

Since it was created, bitcoin has been working fine as currency or investment, and even in case of criminal activities people behind these acts could be tracked without any current regulations, so why to change something that was doing well already?

[dothebeats]

It appears that most of those who embrace the possibilities of using crypto in a broader sense than what is currently available are those countries that experienced some sort of economic instability in the past or in the present. That explains a lot considering that even lawmakers and those people whom we are expecting to go against crypto legislation are the ones actually pushing things to get the momentum started. Uruguay isn't really a poor country per se, but to see that it is pushing for something most developed countries haven't really looked deeper into is really fascinating. It may be a long stretch to have bitcoin approved as legal tender on a country that has a functional economy and very high quality of life, but it's still great that some minds have already been thinking of bitcoin even though they don't necessarily need it.

[DdmrDdmr]

I’ve been reading the  prosed law (in Spanish), and as @Charles-Tim pointed out before on this thread, CoinsDesk’s article has been corrected, and the scope of the law played down to a smaller range, allowing crypto to be used to make payments to companies (*) as a payment method, but not equating the move to legal tender.

Nevertheless, after reading the proposed law, I’ve got various doubts concerning it’s application, since the detail is not enough, nor is the wording crystal clear nor exhaustive.

i.e.1. I figure businesses will be able to accept crypto as a means of payment, but will not be forced to do so, even more so when crypto is not delimited to any named list (BTC, ETH, etc.). I can´t imagine it being mandatory to accept any type of crypto, so I figure, for now, that it optional, and at the merchant’s discretion if and what he accepts.

i.e.2. There is no mention to P2P TXs, so I figure you could purchase a car from a dealer in crypto, but not from your neighbour.

Edit (*): The proposed law may perhaps apply to P2P too. The wording is not that great, and there are slight differences in Spanish from different countries that make matters more difficult to interpret. The phrase used "en cualquier
negocio jurídico" could perhaps be interpreted as aplying to P2P too, as I was pointed out on my local board.