PM sees cryptocurrencies as new challenge for govt, business

MOSCOW, Jan 16 (PRIME) -- Cryptocurrencies have become a new challenge for governments and business but they can disappear in several years, while the blockchain technology, used in cryptocurrencies, have a chance to become a daily reality, like it was the case with the Internet, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday at a forum.

“Nevertheless, this a new test for governments and business, and experts as well,” Medvedev said, adding that theorists foresaw the appearance of cryptocurrencies already in the middle of the previous century.

“And today everyone is worried by the question: where is the finishing line for this ‘cryptocurrency race’? Could it be a drop point of the cyber revolution? We cannot exclude a repetition of the scenario of the early 1990s when we saw multiple companies on the basis of the emerging Internet, and these firms mostly evaporated from the market in the early 2000s,” he said.

“The technology, the Internet, has not only survived, but plays a key role now in our life. In the same way, cryptocurrencies could disappear in several years, but the technology, on the basis of which these cryptocurrencies evolve, I mean blockchain, would become a part of our daily reality. We cannot exclude such an option.”

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