The Ministry of Finance published the Draft Law on Digital Property and sent it for public discussion. With this regulation, Serbia will be among the countries leading the innovative technologies, and will open the door to the development of the digital economy. Entrepreneurs will find it easier to finance innovative ideas, improve liquidity and get involved in the digital property market.
Three years ago, the National Bank regulated the circulation of digital currencies, primarily in order to prevent money laundering. Now it’s time for a new law.
The director of the sector in the NBS, Dejan Devic, says that the key to the law itself are the so-called investment tokens.
“It is a form of digital property that in a way replaces traditional financial instruments and they can be used for financing. They are already used in some countries of the world, and they can be an alternative, for example to debt securities,” says Devic.
In Serbia, several million euros a month are converted into virtual currencies or vice versa through digital platforms of electronic wallets or exchange offices.
“Possibility of minimizing fraud”
When it comes to digital tokens, they often come from abroad with fake accounts, so three quarters of those investments are actually scams. Foreign platforms are mostly used for bitcoin trading in Serbia. Our innovative companies and entrepreneurs expect better regulation from the law, because the goal is not fraud, but the improvement of the domestic IT sector.
“That there is practically some selection through the licensing process and through the process of approving some projects where we will reduce the possibility of fraud to a minimum because every investment process through tokens will have to go through a certain procedure,” said Aleksandar Matanovic from ECD.
EU guidance – cryptocurrencies can be in companies’ balance sheets
The central banks of the most developed countries of the European Union have recently given instructions – how to issue local cryptocurrencies. They will not be traded on the stock exchange for now, but those currencies can enter the balance sheets, ie the assets of companies in digital form. Is that how the history of capital is completed after a year of mistrust?
“This problem was solved thanks to state-of-the-art IT solutions such as blockchain, which is a centralized general ledger of transactions and provides insight into any change, ie there is a low probability of compromise by hackers,” explains Belgrade Banking Academy professor, Malisa Djukic.
The law on digital property will have to have accompanying regulations, because, for example, you can buy virtual currency, but also earn money by so-called mining.
Acquiring currency alone is as risky as any supply and demand, and the main problem for now is the large range of values that can rise or fall in the short term, Kamatica reports.
