Probably everyone knows about the current situation in the world. I am a game developer on the Unity engine and I am worried that sanctions against Russia may affect my activities. Can I be sure that my license will not be revoked and I will continue to develop games on Unity as before? I’m from Russia.
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You probably want to write to support.
In general: Unity usually follows whatever the current export-laws are in the US.
Unity will comply with any sanctions that the relevant governments put in place. Right now, that only really targets specific banks and individuals in Russia - it doesn’t prevent us from offering Unity to most people in Russia right now.
However, the situation is still very fluid, so it’s not possible for us to guarantee that users in Russia won’t be affected in the future.
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You cannot be be sure of that.
US could implement a law that would force Unity to terminate licenses for Russians. So far US hasn’t done so, and there’s not much reason to expect that to happen. But you can’t be sure that it will never happen.
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It is a pity that this affects those people who do not support the war in Ukraine. I’m personally against war. I believe that gamedev, as well as science, should be out of politics.
Given that situation changed, some details, in case anyone is interested.
As far as I can tell, Unity is not planning to revoke licenses for Russians, which is a good thing.
However, at the moment, Russian citizen will be unable to use VISA, Mastercard, Paypal to pay or receive money, which can cause problem if someone bought pro or is selling things on asset store. Bank transfer should be possible, but this is not certain, because previously this sort transactions were used by companies and people registered as individual enterpreneurs and required dealing with foreign currency control (that’s a thing. An anti-laundering mechanism). In this scenario it would be a good idea to contact support to check if there are payment/payout routes still available or not.
It depends further, really. With Russia cut off from SWIFT, a lot of international transactions may see delay depending on how they’re handled due to manual verification having to be used. Whether this applies to Unity’s payouts is beyond me though.
That piece of information is not quite correct.
Swift is cut off for some (most? seven of them) banks but not for all of them.
There are at least two banks still functional. Mastercard/VISA is out for everybody, though, same goes for paypal, payoneer, etc.
Therefore, Unity Technologies needs to add other payment methods, the same cryptocurrency would solve the problem
also MIR, Union Pay, Apple Pay
In current situation something like this is unlikely to happen. Because if Unity were to implement different payment systems so Russians have easier time paying/receiving money, they’ll gain negative publicity in their target market and probbaly slammed with some sort of action. Regarding crypto there’s the whole thing about trying to use it in a legal way, which is its own small circus.
The reasonable idea woudl be to stay put, look into withdrawing funds through remaining unsanctioned banks, and wait for this stuff to pass.
Because, as with all things “This, too, shall pass”
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Cryptocurrency is not a solution to this or any currency problem. The IRS has started requiring that we report it for tax purposes and the government is starting to introduce bills to track it and there is a bill being introduced that will include it in the sanctions against Russia.
If you want to continue using Unity then you have to be the one to break the law here. Sanctions have to be obeyed or it leads to tremendous legal ramifications. We’re talking tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands per incident and up to thirty years in prison. We’re not going to risk that for you.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-democrats-introduce-bill-curb-russian-crypto-use-amid-ukraine-crisis-2022-03-17/
https://www.dowjones.com/professional/risk/glossary/sanctions/ofac-sanctions-penalties/
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Cryptocurrency also isn’t a solution because you still need to be able to cash it out to actually use it, and that’s a process that is time consuming and annoying at the best of times and only made worse after the November crash.
Well, you CAN cash it out, but it can draw attention of IRS or its local equivalent.
You don’t even have to cash it out to draw attention now that the crypto exchanges that want to be legit long term businesses have started reporting all transactions to the IRS.
Multiple proposals are working their way through the United States government that will increase regulations on virtual currencies including requiring all crypto exchanges and custodians to report all transactions for accounts that deal with more than $600 per year, increasing the tax rates, etc.
All of that and it will be retroactive applying to all transactions starting after April 28th 2020 so don’t think you can just fly under the radar now hoping to get a transaction in before it passes.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/14/irs-new-rules-on-bitcoin-ethereum-dogecoin-trading.html
Apologies, I wasn’t clear there.
I was mainly talking about Russian equivalent of IRS there, and not US IRS.
Union Pay is a Chinese payment system. But in the future, it is planned to coloborate with the Russian payment system and it will be possible to use Union Pay for Russians. But even then, Union will remain the Chinese payment system, right? I don’t think Unity can be punished for using this payment system.
Crypto exchanges do not have to be used. Cryptocurrency can be stored in your wallet on your computer
Where it has no value.
The United States has warned Chinese firms not to help Russia bypass sanctions, and the government is very much capable of tracking it too.
Doesn’t work this way.
Unity is an USA company, if USA says no payments for Russians, Unity obeys. Regardless of payment system.
Unity also has no obligation to implement Union Pay (they likely won’t do it, because it is Chinese, and Unity is US-based), or MIR (because it is Russian), and even if ApplePay implemented, then Apple is another US company, meaning if US says no payments for Russians, Apple obeys, and it will be impossible to pay across the borders even if ApplePAY works in Russia.
Similar situation already existed with Paypal where it was impossible to transfer money from a company payapl account to an individual in Russia. Due to regulations.
You do not understand the issue.
Your cold wallet has value of a piece of paper. TO make it useful, you’ll need to cash it out. When you start cashing it out, your bank and tax services in your country can find the situation incredibly interesting, because you’re creating money from nowhere. And when money appears from nothing, default assumption will be that it is of criminal origin. That can result in account freeze, loss of money, a lawsuit or maybe even criminal charges. Having anonymous alternative currency system is against interests of most governments, meaning they’ll crack down on anything that would allow you to bypass their sanctions, and put laws on it. That is already illustrated by @Ryiah who mentioned that individuals in US have to report their crypto assets to tax agency.
Right now you’re pretty much panicking and grasping at straws, hoping that there’s magical solution of sorts. No offense intended. No such solution exists. The situation at the moment is beyond your control so the best idea is to stay put till it reaches a conclusion. As I said “this, too, shall pass”.
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