Bitcoin : Is that true that the smaller the country – the less stupid its government’s reaction on Bitcoin is?
After more than a year of closely monitoring world’s government’s answers to rising Bitcoin popularity I might state that, although there are a number of notable exceptions to this rule (mostly among Middle Eastern as well as some Central American and Asian countries), the bigger a country – the duller and, often, crueler its rulers’ retort to Bitcoin is. Understandably so, isn’t it? In the dog-eats-dog business of people’s governance, the more you are threaten – the more aggressive you behave. Here’s an example of the former USSR republic (now a small, independent nation) – Moldova.
In a period of about a year [the National Bank of Moldova](https://www.bnm.md/en) (NBM) has managed to publish three communiques on Bitcoin. This fact is already very telling about the officially perceived level of Bitcoin’s popularity in this small (4 million inhabitants, 132nd place in the world) East-European nation. However, NBM still keeps its bad central banking instincts in check and reacts to Bitcoin right with accordance to country’s size, which, basically, means that NBM tries to not meddle with that new, unknown, dangerously unpredictable but, who knows, may be even beneficial for country’s overall performance, form of money.
In its press release, dated back to July 10, 2017 NBM’s said: [*”The use of (Bitcoin) is not regulated in the Republic of Moldova. They do not represent a form of electronic money within the meaning of the Law on payment services and electronic money no.114 of 18 May 2012 and the activity on their issuance and transaction is not subject to the competent authority’s supervision.”*](https://www.bnm.md/en/content/virtual-currency-and-its-associated-risks)
Those of you, who are (even vaguely) familiar with the unnatural language with which national bankers habitually express themselves, might notice that this statement is unusual in the way it unapologetically sates the unregulated status of Bitcoin in Moldova.
Even after it was recognized that [*”Moldova’s own separatist region, the unrecognized republic of Transnistria, has adopted (Bitcoin) friendly legislation that legalizes mining and provides incentives for foreign investors in the sector.”*](https://news.bitcoin.com/moldova-with-new-crypto-exchange-and-a-token/) NBM’s position remains unperturbed, which was reconfirmed by bank’s officials in their two most recent dispatches – that of February and May of 2018 expressively named [The National Bank of Moldova repeatedly warns about the risks associated with investing in (Bitcoin)](https://www.bnm.md/en/content/national-bank-moldova-repeatedly-warns-about-risks-associated-investing-so-called) … ” and “[The National Bank of Moldova warns about high risks of investing in ](https://www.bnm.md/en/content/national-bank-moldova-warns-about-high-risks-investing-cryptocurrencies).. (Bitcoin)”.
Essentially, those are fundamentally good news for Moldavian Bictoin-holders for it, most probably, means, that their local power-wielders have decided to adapt wait-and-see approach toward Bitcoin in order to buy more times for themselves and built a system which will be able in a future to shake a Bitcoin fruits tree rather than to cut if off.
Business Notes for Bitcoin Startups Founders:
* political climate: relatively friendly;
* economic climate: not friendly;
* regions to focus: locally;
* industries to focus: e-commerce, e-jobs, marketplaces, FinTech;
* major limitations: excessive regulations, high taxes, low wages, governments control, absence of seed and VC financing, brain drainage, low-tech, agriculture orientated economy;
* stimulus: very high GDP growth rate (over 30%), low costs, little competition;
* opportunities: to bootstrap on local niche markets.
* Bitcoin (outlook): not regulated (positive) .
#### The author: Svyatoslav (Svet) Sedov
*Angel investor and founder of The First International Incubator for Silicon Valley Companies (*[*FirstInternational.In*](http://firstinternational.in/carrum/)*) in the Bay Area, CA, USA.*
* **Twitter:** [https://twitter.com/SvjatoslavSedof](https://twitter.com/SvjatoslavSedof)
Bitcoin
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