Russia’s Central Bank stated today that a digital version of the ruble, and would be ready for a start launch by next year.
Elvira Nabiullina had announced at the online conference where she had also covered the inflation, borrowing the interest rates, and foreign exchange sales.
“It is quite real,” Nabiullina reportedly stated when being questioned if the launch of the digital ruble coming soon. She has stated that a consultation will take place before piloting a digital asset with a part number of users.
It will all take place by the end of 2021, she added.
A CBDC is a digital currency pegged to a country’s fiat money, like the US dollar or euro. It is however different from cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin for it is centralized and controlled by the government or the central bank.
Though countries in the world are interested in CBDCs and the majority of the world’s central banks that have begun the development on some level, however, no country has a working CBDC yet. China is currently the farthest along in the process and it is in the center of testing a digital yuan.
Russia on the other hand has been very interested in releasing its own CBDC. The country’s central bank had released this month stating that a CBDC will “make payments faster, simpler and safer” and like cash “it will be possible to use a digital ruble offline.”
The ones in “remote, sparsely populated and hard-to-reach territories with limited access to financial infrastructure” can benefit from the digital ruble, the report continued.
Nabiullina also declared that a CBDC however, will not ensure anonymity, similar to cash, “it is assumed that confidentiality will be strengthened.”
Decentralized cryptocurrencies are having a hard time in Russia.
In the past, Bitcoin was illegal until this year. It is when lawmakers gave legal status to cryptocurrencies then said that they could not be used to pay for goods and services.
Russians can own Bitcoin and Ethereum when it has been declared but will be unable to use them spending tools.
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