The prosecutor's office issued a warning to the farmers cooperative LavkaLavka because of the reception of bitcoins

Source: Stephen Lichtenberg / lavkagazeta.com



Yesterday it became known that representatives of the farmers' cooperative LavkaLavka were summoned by the Lefortovo interdistrict prosecutor's office. The reason for the call - farmers accepting bitcoins as payment for their products. LavkaLavka started accepting cryptocurrency a few weeks ago. After checking, the prosecutor's office did not reveal any violations, but issued a warning, they wrote "Vedomosti". The founder of the cooperative, Boris Akimov, said that the prosecutor's office told him about the prohibition of cash surrogates in Russia.



It is clear that farmers cannot accept Bitcoin as an official means of payment. Therefore, LavkaLavka uses a different technique. The buyer transfers the cryptocurrency to the electronic wallet of the company, and she, for the same amount (at the exchange rate at the time of payment), deposits rubles instead of the buyer into her own cashier, punching checks. Bitcoin rate is checked on blockchain.info. “We pay all taxes on this sale. We have no violations from a legal point of view, ”said Akimov.



At the procurator's office, representatives of the farmers' cooperative were also able to obtain confirmation of the legality of using the current scheme for paying for their goods with Bitcoins. LavkaLavka is one of the few Russian companies that allows its customers to pay for their goods or services using cryptocurrency. But even those organizations that allegedly accept cryptomonettes do not always provide this opportunity. “I tried to pay Bitcoins several times in Arkady Novikov’s restaurant, Valenok, but it didn’t work: either there’s no system administrator or manager,” said Konstantin Vinogradov, senior investment manager of the venture fund Runa Capital.



This is a restaurant Valenok, which began to accept payment by cryptomonet in June. “Payment goes to the restaurant’s virtual wallet. Accounting has a personal ID and password. Having typed the right combination of letters and numbers, she can check the payment, ”representatives of the establishment told.



The first company among catering establishments in Russia, which began to accept bitcoins, was Subway in Dolgoprudny. This institution announced the start of accepting bitcoins back in 2013. But this did not last long - only six months. As for LavkaLavka, the cooperative began to accept Bitcoins for several reasons. This is attracting customers, PR campaign and expanding technological capabilities.