Russian court overturns cryptocurrency media ban

Q16. It is a blockchain-based cryptocurrency that works in a similar way to Ethereum and bitcoin. It is a peer-to-peer internet currency that allows for instant, near-zero cost payments to anyone in the world. It’s a decentralised payment network that isn’t managed by any central authorities. What is it known as?

In a report published by Coin Desk, a city court in St. Petersburg, Russia, has annulled a decision made in 2016 by a district court blocking access to bitcoininfo.ru to Russian residents. In a Tass report, the city court was quoted: “The St. Petersburg City Court quashed the decision of the district court to recognize the information posted on the Bitcoininfo.ru website.”

In July 2016, the Vyborg Court of St. Petersburg had received an application from the prosecutor’s office to block the website bitcoininfo.ru and had passed a judgement in the absence of the site owners. According to the case file, the prosecutor’s office had demanded to block the site due to the information on Cryptocurrencies that do not lend themselves to State control, promote the growth of a shadow economy and do not have certain consumer properties. The City Court of St. Petersburg had refused to consider the complaint of the owners. However, the Supreme Court overturned the decision and ordered the City Court to consider it.

Sarkis Darbinyan, the representative of bitcoininfo.ru told Tass that around 100 websites devoted to Cryptocurrencies were blocked. He claimed that the prosecutor’s applications are considered by the court without involving the site owners. He stated that bitcoininfo.ru did not receive any request for removal of objectionable information from the website. Also, he was surprised at the City Court’s refusal to accept appeals after blocking the websites.

Russia is in the process of drawing up and passing a regulatory framework to control and govern the Cryptocurrency industry. The government is planning to roll out the regulation covering initial coin offerings (ICOs) and trading of crypto tokens by this summer. According to a report published in RIA, the Bank of Russia said that it may now consider the option of allowing investors to exchange tokens issued under the proposed ICO framework with fiat currencies. However, crypto-to-crypto trading may not be permitted, in an effort to avoid "questionable" anonymous transactions.