Western countries have imposed several sanctions on Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine. According to Forbes Russian-language edition, the sanctions have persuaded the Bank of Russia to accelerate the creation of the Digital Rubles. According to the high-ranking source, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) had planned to begin the digital ruble pilot with actual transactions and customers in 2024, but the project will now be launched in April 2023. Simultaneously, the regulator intends to begin implementing smart contracts using the digital ruble infrastructure.
Last April, the Russian Central Bank said that a prototype of the digital ruble would be available by the end of 2021, with trials with commercial banks beginning in 2022. It began testing the platform in February of this year, and later that month, it revealed the first successful transfers between individual wallets.
According to the CBR, users may use mobile applications to establish digital ruble wallets, exchange ordinary electronic money from their bank accounts for digital rubles, and then move the currencies amongst themselves. CBR First Deputy Chairman Olga Skorobogatova stated that digital currency transactions would be free for all Russians and would be available in all regions of the nation.
So far, a dozen Russian banks have sought to be part of the project’s trial group, with three of them having already connected their systems to the central bank’s digital currency (CBDC) network. According to the CBR, two financial institutions have successfully completed a full cycle of digital ruble transactions between clients.
Despite differences with the Ministry of Finance on the future of cryptocurrencies in Russia, the Bank of Russia began testing the digital ruble. The CBR suggested a blanket ban on crypto-related operations, whereas the ministry wants them authorised and controlled. The issue is still being discussed in Moscow, but the central bank is sticking to its guns, claiming that legalising their circulation poses a risk to the country’s financial stability and residents.
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