Russia is proving to be an intriguing country when it comes to cryptocurrency. Despite earlier rumors surrounding the CryptoRuble, it seems this currency will not be introduced. President Vladimir Putin makes it clear the country cannot have its own cryptocurrency.
No CryptoRuble in Sight
For several years now, there have been rumors regarding Russia issuing its own cryptocurrency. The project has been preliminarily dubbed as the CryptoRuble. President Putin even met with Vitalik Buterin to discuss blockchain technology at one point. Even so, it seems there are no immediate plans to issue the CryptoRuble, nor will there be in the foreseeable future.
According to TASS, President Putin has officially shot down all plans regarding a Russian cryptocurrency. In his opinion, it is “inherently impossible for Russia to have its own cryptocurrency.” This is a rather vague statement, although Putin followed it up by stating how “no other country can have its cryptocurrency either.”
The main reason for this dismissal is that Putin views cryptocurrencies as going beyond national borders, which is pretty true. Of course, fiat from many nations is used beyond their country of origin’s national borders as well.
Putin finished up his discussion on cryptocurrency by saying:
The Central Bank believes that cryptocurrencies cannot be means of payments and settlements, cannot be means of hoarding and are not secured by anything. All this proves that we should treat them by rule and line, cautiously.
The Future of Bitcoin in Russia
While the CryptoRuble may not happen, it seems Bitcoin adoption is not hindered. Although there remains some opposition to Bitcoin, the overall trend is still relatively neutral. While the view of the Russian Central bank towards cryptocurrencies appears to not bode well for the future of Bitcoin and altcoins in Russia moving forward, the country is poised to finalize regulations concerning cryptocurrency and ICOs.
Despite all the negative rhetoric from Putin and other government officials over the last few months, Russians continue to use cryptocurrency. One of Russia’s largest payment processors embraced Bitcoin a while ago. WebMoney enabled Bitcoin support a few years ago. It remains unclear if this option is popular in any of its supported countries at this stage. Considering how the company hasn’t removed the feature yet, it makes sense to assume there are sufficient people using Bitcoin in this regard.
Of course, the state still frowns on certain aspects of the crypto sphere. Earlier this year, various Russian scientists were arrested for mining Bitcoin while at work. They did so while using the laboratory’s supercomputers to mine Bitcoin.
While the CryptoRuble may not be coming, the proposed legislation will ensure that Russians have the right to trade their virtual currency for both fiat and other digital currencies. Exchanges will need to be “legal entities” to operate, and some restrictions will be placed on wallets. Overall, Bitcoin does have a future in Russia, but government regulators will be keeping a keen eye upon it.
What do you think about Putin shooting down the CryptoRuble? Let us know in the comments below.
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