Russia doesn’t have the best of relationships with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. More specifically, the opinions among government officials are still pretty divided as we speak. One thing that seems to be happening is how some sort of cryptocurrency-related effort will be launched soon. According to Reuters, various countries – including Russia – want to sue cryptocurrencies for oil trading. An interesting train of thought, assuming it is even feasible.
It is unclear what the future holds for oil trading. The US Dollar is the currency of the entire world in this regard. Not an ideal situation, mind you, as every country has its own currency. Slowly but surely, more countries move away from the greenback in this regard. Finding a proper replacement is not all that easy, though. Russia is even considering to use cryptocurrencies instead of the Dollar. A rather surprising turn of events, to say the very least.
Oil Trading With Cryptocurrencies?
Oil trading is a booming business. Unfortunately, it is also subject to sanctions imposed by the US government and its allies. For countries such as Russia, Iran, and Venezuela, that has become increasingly problematic. Turning to cryptocurrencies makes a lot of sense in this regard. These globally accessible forms of money aren’t bound by existing regulation or sanctions. It would be a more than viable replacement for the petrodollar, to say the very least.
It remains to be seen if anything will come of this, though. We know Venezuela will create its own digital currency known as the Petro. That currency will derive value from the country’s natural oil reserves. How a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin would fit into this picture, remains a big question. It seems this is merely a train of thought rather than an actual course of action, for the time being.
No one can deny cryptocurrencies will impact the financial sector sooner or later. Oil trading is not necessarily a suitable industry, but it would yield some interesting results. Countries dealing with international sanctions have to get creative in this regard. Cryptocurrencies are an option well worth considering in this regard. There is no mention of Bitcoin by name, though, which isn’t surprising. Countries need something with privacy, fungibility, and low transaction fees. Basically, everything Bitcoin isn’t and hasn’t.
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