Russian Central Bank Wants to Treat Bitcoin As Digital Commodity

The Deputy of the Russian Central Bank Olga Skorobogatova has called for virtual currencies to be treated as “digital commodities.” Quoted by Interfax, Skorobogatova said that the central bank would seek to “adopt regulations with a specific focus on tax, controls, and accountability like [those which apply to] digital commodities.” “With virtual currency being emitted which is not backed by the gold standard and remains beyond control from the point of view of supply, sooner or later this can lead to instability in financial markets,” she added.

Russia is on the way to adopting formal regulations on cryptocurrency from 2018, the central bank previously announced, with proposals for what form these should take due next month. In April, during preliminary comments on the Russian government’s future stance on Bitcoin and other currencies, deputy finance minister Alexey Moiseev nonetheless added that the state wished to monitor transactions, regardless of how this could be realistically achieved. “The state needs to know who at every moment of time stands on both sides of the financial chain,” he said. “If there’s a transaction, the people who facilitate it should understand from whom they bought and to whom they were selling, just like with bank operations.”

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
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