Russia to focus on blockchain, not to regulate cryptocurrencies

MOSCOW, Sep 26 (PRIME) -- Russia will not regulate cryptocurrencies yet, but focus on the blockchain technology, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev told PRIME on Tuesday following Monday’s government meeting.

“The government has failed to find a common ground. That is why (First Deputy Prime Minister Igor) Shuvalov decided to take a wait-and-see approach (towards cryptocurrencies), and now we are engaged in legalizing the blockchain technology as a mechanism to register data so that information stored in the blockchain systems could be as legally binding as data (currently stored in other formats),” he said.

“The next meeting will be held in three months, and we will present our proposals on blockchain regulation… we may go back to the bitcoin issue as well.”

Moiseyev also said that an international financial stability meeting will take place on October 6 in Berlin and “some ideas (on cryptocurrencies regulation) may be suggested there”. However, global legal experience varies strongly and “it is impossible to speak about a unified trend,” he added.

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