Alexander Sotnikov, the head of the Payment Systems and Digital Technologies Department of the National Bank of Belarus, said that the country is not likely to turn down the distributed ledger technology.

In an interview to Startuplife, Sotnikov outlined the fact that the National Bank “heartily welcomes any ideas that could help to implement projects based on the blockchain.” He said that the technology has a future, despite some complications:

“At the moment, there are very few industries where the advantages of the blockchain are obvious. The blockchain technology shall in the first place establish trust where it is lacking. That is, where most of the counterparts do not trust each other. It has turned out that there are not too many cases like this.”

The representative of the National Bank paid special attention to the way the state treats cryptocurrencies. He said that the latter have both advantages and disadvantages and, as they are not regulated by any Belarusian law, the rights of their users are not protected. Thus, “all transactions with cryptocurrencies are carried out by the participants at their own risk.”

Sotnikov reassured that the state will not act with “fire and sword”, it would rather try to find a balanced approach to the innovation. He believes that the terms “bitcoin” and “blockchain” are being overused and devaluated now, and the market can “get tired of the chimerical projects based on bitcoin and blockchain.”

Belarussian blockchain community, though not numerous, has been on the rise recently. In autumn 2015, Bitcoin Conference Minsk was held along with the Belarus Gaming Congress. This spring, the country held its first bitcoin- and blockchain-related meetup where enthusiasts had an opportunity to meet each other and exchange ideas.