The growth of Bitcoin industry has been slow in Brazil compared to other Latin American countries like Argentina. The number of Bitcoin related start-ups from Brazil has been negligible even though the country has almost twice the number of Bitcoin users than Argentina. According to the publicly available data on the number of Bitcoin-QT wallets downloads, Brazil exceeds by a fair margin in comparison to Argentina and most of Latin American countries put together.
The slow growth of Brazilian Bitcoin industry can be attributed to lack of clarity about the laws and regulations associated with the digital currency. Recently in December 2014, the Brazilian Senate published a report which deemed Bitcoin regulations as unnecessary. As there has been a lot of developments in the Bitcoin sphere since then, the plans of holding a public hearing on Bitcoin and digital currency regulations seems to be back on track.
Manoel Junior, a Brazilian Congressman has called for an interaction between the central bank – Banco Central do Brasil, Brazilian taxation department – Receita Federal, anti-fraud agency – Controle de Atividaeds Fiancerias and Brazilian Bitcoin industry in the form of a public hearing. By making an attempt to revive the talks that were supposed to happen at the time of release of the Senate report on Bitcoin, the government of Brazil has exhibited its willingness to accept Bitcoin as a digital currency or a form of digital asset with tangible monetary value associated with it.
Until now, CoinBR has been the only Brazilian Bitcoin company which has received the official request to participate in the public hearing. While the Brazilian Bitcoin exchange, CoinBR Is more than willing to be part of the discussion to shape the widely used digital currency’s future in the country there are others who aren’t happy with it. For example, the CEO of FlowBTC, another local Bitcoin exchange has expressed a strong negative reaction about the proposed public hearing and also questioned the intentions of CoinBR for its planned participation in the discussion.
The discussion between government and Bitcoin community is the first step towards framing Bitcoin regulations. Unless the community actively participates in it and addresses the concerns of the government regarding Bitcoin and voice their opinions about it at the same time, they can’t expect a fair policy and regulations towards the industry.