Izvestia: It is likely that the Central Bank of Russia will allow the use of Bitcoin

Izvestia learned from a source in the Central Bank that next week officials from the Central Bank will meet with representatives of financial markets. They will discuss bitcoin in particular and cryptocurrencies in general. Oddly enough, the attitude to this topic in the Central Bank over the past year has greatly softened.

In early 2014, the Central Bank was rather tough on bitcoins. They were called the abusive phrase “ money surrogate ”, and although no laws prohibiting their use were adopted, an angry letter from the Central Bank was enough to start oppressing entrepreneurs trying to accept payments in cryptocurrencies. The Prosecutor General's Office, of course, supported the introduction of bans.

The main disadvantages of bitcoins were the lack of real provision of any values ​​and the use of currency when purchasing various prohibited goods.

As for the first claim, the presence of “real security” in state banknotes for some reason did not help those countries that organized withdrawal, hyperinflation , exchange of restricted notes and other money transactions at different periods of their stories , which led to deception of their population.

Take gold, for example. It can not be eaten, and its value is clearly due to the inability to use it in microcircuits and contacts of expensive audio cables. Bitcoons, in fact, are provided with the same thing as gold - they cannot be created much and simply out of thin air, and they have value because everyone agreed that they have value.

As for the use of cryptocurrencies for the purchase of weapons, drugs and other disastrous operations, cash has been the leader in this area since the beginning of time. But so far no one is going to ban them. Except Norway .

The law was promised to be finalized and adopted, but in connection with the events that erupted last year, crises and sanctions, it was postponed. Various deputies, burning with righteous anger, are tired of waiting for the completion of the law, and put forward in December their version of the ban with a millionth fine. They based their version of the bill on a proposal from the Ministry of Finance.

But this anger was suddenly slightly dampened by the statement of the Central Bank’s first deputy chairman Georgy Luntovsky, who at the International Banking Congress said that the Central Bank is trying to do everything carefully and not to reject bitcoin too furiously - because, “maybe the future lies with it”. Despite the fact that the future of bitcoin in Russia, of course, determines the Central Bank itself.

So the Ministry of Economic Development at the end of the year made commentsregarding the fact that the prohibition of all kinds of “money surrogates” is a hasty matter, and we need to think it over well. Especially worried were the representatives of OpSoSov who were invited as consultants during the discussion, who like to accrue “prize points” and other candy wrappers. The latter can easily fall into the category of "surrogates." It is still unknown whether the law will generally separate cryptocurrencies from bonus points and discount programs - this is too subtle a difference.

It is difficult to say what influenced the change of anger to cautious mercy in the Central Bank. Need to “think it over carefully” (after sufficiently harsh statements have already been made)?

Perhaps the regulator is driven by a desire to keep up with other countries. Bitcoin is now completely banned in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ecuador, Thailand, and Vietnam. At the same time, in Thailand, the ban, according to the authorities, is temporary - until the relevant legislation is developed. Some countries have partial restrictions - for example, in China, cryptocurrency transactions are not available to banks. In most countries, cryptocurrencies are allowed - only their definition and approach to the transaction tax differ.

Deputy Chairman of the National Council of the Financial Market, Alexander Naumov, believes that the Central Bank could instead of banning begin to regulate the bitcoin market in the Russian Federation - together with the Ministry of Communications and the Federal Security Service. In his opinion, a complete ban on cryptocurrency will simply transfer it to the shadow part of the market, and then it will really be used only for illegal operations. Naumov is sure that the legalization of bitcoins in Russia is a matter of the next 1-2 years.