Putin’s Orders: Russia Will Have its National Cryptocurrency, the ‘CryptoRuble’

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 make 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 so 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 in roughly translated statements, detailing the digital ruble further.

The creation of its own cryptocurrency should not be read as an endorsement, nor any effort to legalize decentralized cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, the minister added.

As reported by CCN in April 2016, the first public comments on Russia’s national digital currency saw Olga Skorobogatov, deputy chairwoman 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 cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. The very same day, Russian president Putin spoke of “serious risks” with cryptocurrencies while acknowledging their growth in “becoming or have already become a full-fledged means of payment, as well as a means of investment” in countries around the world.

Some statements have been translated from Russian.