Russian lawmakers passed a bill on Tuesday that will allow businesses to use crypto currencies in international trade, as part of efforts to skirt Western sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. From a report:

The law is expected to go into force in September, and Russian central bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina, one of the backers of the new law, said the first transactions in cryptocurrencies will take place before the end of the year. Russia has faced significant delays in international payments with major trading partners such as China, India and the United Arab Emirates after banks in those countries, under pressure from Western regulators, became more cautious.

“We are taking a historic decision in the financial sphere,” the head of the Duma lower house of parliament, Anatoly Aksakov, told lawmakers. Under the new law, the central bank will create a new “experimental” infrastructure for cryptocurrency payments. Details of the infrastructure have yet to be announced.

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgOP
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    38
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    edit-2
    4 months ago

    Legitimate uses for crypto: 0

    Cyber crime, money laundering, scams, sanctions evasions: 1,000,003

    • sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      20
      arrow-down
      9
      ·
      4 months ago

      Crypto allows thousands of people around the globe in oppressed countries to save, spend, and transfer money. Also the most laundered currency in the world is USD.

    • Shard@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 months ago

      I hope this is the sort of thing to finally bring crypto crashing down for good.

      We have an unsustainable energy sponge whose only real legal use is speculative trading.

    • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      4 months ago

      Legitimate uses for crypto: 0

      There’s plenty of legitimate uses for Bitcoin. Your statement screams “There’s no legit use for Signal messenger because SMS exists”. Just because it could be used by nefarious people doesn’t negate it’s use by normal people.

      • baru@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        4 months ago

        Your statement screams

        …something that’s not similar/equivalent.

        • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          4 months ago

          So a money platform that cannot be regulated/controlled by a government… is not similar to a messaging platform that cannot be regulated/controlled by a government.

          You know what you’re right… signal is too centralized. I’ll revise my statement to Matrix. It’s similar to Matrix.