According to the head of state, high electricity consumption during the extraction of digital currencies may hinder the development of the national industry
The President of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benitez, vetoed a bill on the regulation of the cryptocurrency industry.
The head of the country explained his decision by the fact that high electricity consumption by mining can hinder the development of the national industry.
The presidential decree of August 29 states that cryptocurrency mining is characterized by high electricity consumption, capital intensity and low labor use, which does not create added value. According to the head of Paraguay, the soft conditions for miners proposed in the bill (the tax rate is only a few percentage points higher than for industry) can stimulate the development of mining instead of stimulating industry.
The proposed bill established rules for mining, trading, mediation, exchange, transfer, storage and management of crypto assets, but the government chose to ignore this type of activity, which is now in the “gray” zone, the senator who promoted this bill, Fernando Silva Facetti, wrote on Twitter (the social network is blocked in Russia).
According to him, the president is destroying opportunities for new investors to enter the industry and the official registration of many small and medium-sized companies engaged in mining and cryptocurrencies.
Last week, Argentina, neighboring Paraguay, where the use of cryptocurrencies is legally permitted, launched a pilot project that will allow residents of the country to pay with cryptocurrency when paying for goods and services in more than 90 million stores around the world that have an agreement with Mastercard.