Shashwat Mishra – Mumbai Uncensored, 22nd January 2022
The Russian apex bank on Thursday has proposed banning cryptocurrencies including mining and purchasing crypto coins in the Russian territory. The central bank of Russia said that cryptocurrency pose serious threats such as money laundering, terror financing etc. Another reason cited by the authority is the fact that allowing cryptocurrency would seriously affect the money supply and control of monetary policy of the central bank. The other reasons cited by the central banks are protecting investor’s interest, ensuring financial stability etc.
The ban will also be on the crypto exchange platforms, cryptocurrency exchange platforms told Reuters, that they are willing to work together with the regulators in Russia and wait for the report to come out. The said proposal by central bank of Russia is viewed as a decision which China took against cryptocurrency which was a blanket ban on cryptocurrency, however, Russia is not willing to do that as Elizaveta Danilova, head of the central bank’s financial stability department, said, “For now there are no plans to ban cryptocurrencies similar to the experience of China,” “The approach we have proposed will suffice.” As of now the more likely result of central bank’s proposal is that it is willing to ban cryptocurrency mining in Russia.
Russia is world’s third largest country in bitcoin mining only behind, United States and Kazakhstan. Bank of Russia says that crypto mining is posing a serious threat as mining is a process executed by powerful computers which are connected to a global network and solve complex cryptographic puzzles, this process results in consuming loads of electricity and it is often powered by fossil fuels. In august, 2021 Russia accounted for a hash rate of 11.2% of the global “hashrate”- term used for the amount of computing power used by computers which are connected to a global crypto network.
The central Bank of Russia is planning to launch its own digital currency in future.
