The government’s plan to license exchanges and tax large transactions has the support of the central bank, which previously wanted to outlaw mining and trading.
The Russian central bank has officially launched the digital ruble trial, successfully completing the first central bank digital currency (CBDC) transfers among citizens.
Russia’s government and its central bank have reached an agreement on how to regulate cryptocurrencies, according to a statement released by the government.
The agreement comes after the Bank of Russia last month proposed banning Bitcoin miners and other crypto operations because of concerns it may cause financial instability, citizens well-being, and its monetary policy sovereignty.
Russia’s government and central bank are now working on a draft law that will define crypto as an “analogue of currencies” and not digital financial assets.
How Russia’s central bank will implement the digital ruble
Amongst Russia’s central bank and other market participants with dealings using digital rubles, the process will be based on the principle of a two-tier retail model. For starters, the Bank of Russia will be the issuer of digital rubles as well as the operator of the centralized platform.
Clients on the other hand, will open digital wallets and conduct transactions on them on the digital ruble platform via financial institutions. “The uniqueness of the digital ruble is that it will be possible to access your digital wallet through the mobile application of any bank that serves the client,” the bank claimed.
The Bank of Russia’s first deputy chairman Olga Skorobogatova reckons that “the digital ruble platform is a new opportunity for citizens, businesses and the state. We are also planning that for citizens transfers in digital rubles, it will be free and available in any region of the country and for businesses, this will reduce costs and create opportunities for the development of innovative products and services.”