New revelations about a Russian digital ruble showcase how cryptocurrency might work practically within that country’s economy.
Today Helen Partz reports at Cointelegraph on remarks by Bank of Russia chairwoman Elvira Nabiullina, who spoke at a business meeting called Opora Russia December 3.
Calling the move toward a digital ruble a “natural move,” Nabiullina explained how it might curtail some of the fee activity of banks, but would help small businesses to grow.
A digital coin like this, she maintained, would in general help facilitate faster transactions and much more of the frictionless money handling that cryptocurrency and decentralized finance are known for.
“Financial intermediaries should become less burdensome for the economy and earn money with new products and services instead of profiting from its monopoly and lack of alternatives,” Nabiullina reportedly said. “We believe that small and medium-sized businesses should definitely benefit from this.”
Nabiullina also talked about how a digital ruble could be less anonymous than cash, which is an excellent selling point for this kind of central bank crypto currency.
All sorts of questions have been raised about the use of decentralized coins for fraud and money laundering, but the fact exists that even an anonymous digital trail is more traceable than cash.
Russia released its central bank digital currency plan October 13, but more talk about this development for a large and modernizing nation-state is critical to the geopolitics of crypto currency as a whole.
“In mid-October, CBR released a paper on the prospects of introducing a digital currency, which would be called Central Bank Digital Currency, or CBDC,” wrote Vladimir Kozlov Oct. 21 at The Moscow Times. “That paper was backed by an article from Alexey Zabotkin, CBR deputy governor, published in Econs journal.”
Many traders are looking at China, Russia and the United States as market movers when it comes to fintech, so it’s a good idea to continue to trace the evolution of cryptocurrency in these economies as you’re making your crypto plans.