2 mins read Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken of using blockchain technology for creating an international payments system.
He cited independence, convenience, and safety as key advantages of such a system.
Putin appeared at the International AI Journey Conference in Moscow – an event organized by Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank.
Sberbank is a large lender to the government, and having the president of the country speaking about a new financial tool during an event organized by it, certainly adds weight to the feasibility of what Putin outlined.
Putin praised the interception point between digital currencies and blockchain technology in the face of a new payments system as being “much more convenient, absolutely safe for its users and, most importantly, will not depend on banks or interference by third countries”.
The last part there being reference to Putin’s critiques of the “illegal restrictions”, as he called the international sanctions imposed on the country.
Him identifying the settlement of payments as “one of the possible methods of attack” when discussing the sanctions isn’t new, neither is his idea of using blockchain to circumvent such restrictions.
However, as is customary with the value of the crypto market, Russia’s stance on cryptocurrencies has also fluctuated somewhat over the years.
Russia banned crypto payments just a few months ago, and now the issue is again a topic of discussion, this time under the spotlight with the opposite sentiment.
Another important step on the country’s path to broader crypto regulation was its plans to develop a national crypto exchange, as Cointelegraph reported.
The exchange’s arrival mandates a change in the country’s current regulation regarding digital assets, and the Russian central bank would have to approve of it.
The institution has historically been rather cautious regarding crypto, so any talk of crypto regulation solely based on this would be a push.
However, taking a look at the bigger picture, ever since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has taken more steps towards regulation than towards banning, so there’s definitely a trend there.
Whether that is mostly driven by recognizing the value of digital assets or to avoid sanctions is up for speculation, though.
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