Russian Statesman: Crypto-Rubel May Emerge in Two-Three Years

One prominent member of the Gosduma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia (or simply the State Duma), has recently predicted the arrival of a crypto-Rubel. The chairman of the State Duma committee of Financial market, Anatoly Aksakov, shared his opinion on the launch of a crypto-Rubel while discussing the plans of the committee with RIA Novosti - a state-operated domestic Russian-language news agency. He further stated that the crypto-Rubel may appear in the next two or three years.

In most countries, the legal status of the smart contracts, ICO, crypto transactions, and mining has not been fully defined; however, last year in March, three bills were passed on first reading in the State Duma aiming to diminish those sorts of gaps and create a crypto regulatory status in the digital economy. The bills were giving the signals that Russia has become finally accepting and tolerant toward crypto adoption.

In contrast, the Bank of Russia has adopted the opposite attitude, stating that the crypto-Rubel would have nothing to offer but the legalization of suspicious transactions. Furthermore, the bank of Russia said that it is not allowing a Crypto-to-Rubel exchange because the flow of the money within it will be untraceable.

However, holding a positive attitude towards the creation of a crypto-Rubel, Anatoly Aksakov stated that the central bank of Russia is so far having too conservative nature, that a crypto-Rubel is possible and can be created in the Russian Federation as blockchain use cases are growing extensively. He further elaborated that a state-backed cryptocurrency will be secured and powered by the fiat Rubel; the only difference between the fiat-Rubel and the crypto-Rubel will be the blockchain engine behind the crypto-Rubel. Going further, he also declared that the more extensively blockchain is used in various fields of governance, business and lifestyle the greater the likelihood of a crypto-ruble. It is just a matter of two or three years, he asserted.

Along with the concept of a crypto-Rubel, Aksakov also revealed that several pilot blockchain programs and projects are being tested within the “regulatory sandbox” of the Bank of Russia. Some of these projects are aiming to launch a secure cryptocurrency, i.e. crypto-Rubel. The regulatory sandbox is currently in charge of testing these projects and determine whether such digital currency is necessary or not; and in case that it is, what would be the changes in regulations and legislation to allow its legal status and operation.

“I think that as soon as we adopt the law on digital financial assets, real implementation practice will begin,” Anatoly Aksakov concluded, “and in the course of it, the emergence of relevant proposals may arise in order to create legal conditions for the emergence of these cryptocurrencies.”