In this article I will voice my opinion on the crypto news coming from Russia and what I think it means.
That Cryptic Ruble
As most of you have heard by now, the Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it public that Russia will issue it's own cryptocurrency called the "CryptoRuble".
The news broke through the Minister of Communications Nikolay Nikiforov, who stated:
“I confidently declare that we run CryptoRuble for one simple reason: if we do not, then after 2 months our neighbors in the EurAsEC will.”
According to the Russian officials, the currency will be centralized: issued and maintained under the country's authority. Users will not be able to mine it. It will be possible to exchange crypto Rubles for the fiat version, however if one cannot explain where they came from, a 13% taxation will be applied.
So far, so bad good.
I have seen this news marketed as "Governments diving into Blockchain technology", "Russia first in the Crypto game", "Russia to become Major Crypto Player" and so on, which I find is profoundly exaggerated.
Let us remind ourselves of some of the core principles of Bitcoin:
One of the major Bitcoin innovations is that a decentralized currency doesn't need regulatory oversight and involvement of authority. Decentralization provides free access to every one who wants to participate, without discriminating.
The "Proof of State" algorithm
As you see, the CryptoRuble goes against every single one of these core points and therefore I find the news very unimpressive.
The "CryptoRuble" is not a real cryptocurrency.
I don't like it and you shouldn't either. (Sorry, actually you are entitled to your own opinion)
Why would users want to participate in something that goes against all fundamental values of the Crypto community?
To give it some positive perspective - Yes, government's all over are looking into blockchain technology; There is no alternative really, as the amount of crypto investors grows, the technology becomes more significant. Introducing the CryptoRuble might help the adoption rate of real cryptocurrencies, as it could potentially be a link to Bitcoin and altcoins much like the Tether is. At the very least it could raise awareness.
Overall, I find this course of action a bit disappointing, seeing that recently the Russian President met with the founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin to discuss cryptocurrency and also had him speak at the Russian Economic Conference 2017.
I am certain, that the CryptoRuble is not something Vitalik would envision or endorse.
In the long term, I do see another far more promising gateway into the Crypto World for Russia, which I will discuss in a separate article.
Image sources:
image source 1
image source 2
Information ources:
https://www.coindesk.com/vladimir-putin-vitalik-buterin-discuss-ethereum-opportunities-recent-forum
https://cointelegraph.com/news/breaking-russia-issuing-cryptoruble
https://cointelegraph.com/news/suddenly-vladimir-putin-meets-vitalik-buterin-endorses-ethereum
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