Bitcoin Argentina, a non-governmental organization, has unveiled a draft bill aimed at regulating the cryptocurrency market in a manner that upholds decentralization and bolsters public trust.
This significant shift in stance was presented by Bitcoin Argentina’s president, Ricardo Mihura, during LABITCONF 2023 in Buenos Aires on November 10.
Notably, Bitcoin Argentina had previously resisted the idea of regulating the cryptocurrency industry.
However, the organization now contends that regulation is imperative not only to safeguard the blockchain but also to hold malicious actors accountable under the full extent of the law.
Ricardo Mihura emphasized their new approach, stating, “We have always rejected attempts to regulate the crypto economy, but this time we set ourselves the goal of giving a positive response, with only two purposes: preserving decentralization and protecting savings and public trust.”
He further expressed concern over dishonest actors and projects operating under the blockchain banner.
The proposed legal framework primarily revolves around categorizing cryptocurrency platforms and service providers into three distinct groups based on property rights: decentralized, locally centralized or willing to cooperate with authorities, and globally centralized.
Under this framework, platforms falling into the two centralized categories would be permitted to operate freely, but their customers would be afforded robust legal protection, ensuring the right to seek compensation in the event of a company’s collapse.
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Importantly, Argentina’s judiciary would not intervene in cases involving failures of decentralized platforms. The determination of a platform’s decentralization status would be made by courts when addressing claims made by purportedly affected customers.
Mihura argued against an outright ban on cryptocurrencies, emphasizing that such bans are ineffective due to the global nature of blockchain technology.
He stated, “Not even the United States can effectively prohibit the operation of the unlicensed cryptoeconomy…Argentina has no possibility of prohibiting its residents from operating in global environments.”
Therefore, instead of pursuing a top-down ban, the proposed bill seeks to offer the best possible legal protection to citizens, holding responsible parties and those profiting from fraudulent schemes accountable, up to the final victim.
This move by Bitcoin Argentina comes at a crucial time, just one week before Argentina’s presidential runoff election between Sergio Massa, the country’s economy minister, and Javier Milei, an economist-turned-politician advocating for the abandonment of Argentina’s central bank in favor of adopting the United States dollar.
Argentina faces a pressing inflation crisis, with a staggering annual inflation rate of 121.7% over the past 12 months, ranking as the fourth highest in the world.
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