Putin says Russia will have its own national crypto currency!
MOSCOW, Russia (PNN) - October 16, 2017 - Russian president Vladimir Putin has called for a state-issued cryptocurrency - the cryptoruble.
According to Russian publication AIF, a closed-doors meeting between President Putin and Moscow’s political elite at the city’s Capital Club led to Putin making the significant decision to have Russia issue its own cryptocurrency, dubbed the cryptoruble. Details of the meeting were revealed by Russian minister of Communications and Mass Communications Nikolai Nikiforov. The senior government official also claimed the cryptoruble will be developed and issued quickly by the Russian state. While details of the technology used for the cryptocurrency remain scarce, Nikiforov added the cryptocurrency cannot be mined.
The minister said in a statement, “I confidently declare that we will launch the cryptoruble for one simple reason: if we do not, our neighbors in the Eurasian Economic Community will do it in 2 months.”
The cryptoruble, effectively a cryptocurrency that will be legal tender in the Russian Federation, will also see certain adopters incur personal income tax. If the owner is unable to declare the source of cryptorubles, a flat tax of 13% will be levied when converting the cryptocurrency into Russian rubles. Similarly, an automatic 13% tax slab will also be levied on the earned difference of transactions involving buying and selling a crypotoruble. According to Nikiforov, these details are yet to be discussed.
“It will, most likely, be a closed model with a certain volume of regulated emissions,” added Nikiforov, further detailing the digital ruble.
The creation of its own cryptocurrency should not be read as an endorsement, nor any effort to legalize decentralized crypto currencies like Bitcoin, the minister added.
The first public comments on Russia’s national digital currency saw Olga Skorobogatov, deputy chairman of Russia’s central bank, hint at a “hybrid network” of both public and private blockchain protocols leading to a unified distributed ledger powering a national digital currency. The Central Bank of Russia has been steadfastly testing a number of digital currency pilots toward the development of a national digital currency.
A week ago, the first deputy governor of Russia’s central bank revealed the authority’s intent to block all websites belonging to exchanges and trading platforms offering crypto currencies like Bitcoin. The very same day, Putin spoke of “serious talks” with crypto currencies while acknowledging their growth in “becoming a full-fledged means of payment, as well as a means of investment” in countries around the world.
