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Russia and OPEC countries are considering the possibility of launching oil cryptocurrency

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Oleg Nikolayev, a member of the State Duma’s economic policy committee, told journalists that as early as March, the Russian parliament could consider and adopt a legislative act on cryptocurrencies .

According to Nikolaev, the law is in the final stage of processing. Its adoption will give the blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies the opportunity to develop. Naturally, the business and the expert community have high hopes for the accelerated development of the digital economy with the law.

First of all, the law can give chances for the implementation of the proposal of the head of the corporation "Energy", the former Minister of Energy Igor Yusufov, who advocates the creation of oil cryptocurrency. According to Yusufov, the roadmap of this project is almost complete.

Answering the question about the pros of oil cryptocurrency, Yusufov said :

“The introduction of a system of calculations in the cryptocurrency in the energy market hypothetically allows us to avoid the costs associated with the use of currencies that are not backed up – the unpredictability of exchange rate fluctuations, the commission for currency exchange, trade restrictions.

Such a project can be a significant contribution to the development of the Russian and international digital ecosystem and set a new bar for commercial infrastructure, the use of blockchain and smart contracts for non-financial services. In the current situation of the oil market and the instability of calculations in dollars, the logic of the development of the digital economy on a global scale suggests exactly this development path.

After the launch of the cryptocurrency platform, oil-producing countries will be able to maneuver with respect to financial and trade restrictions, which have become too many in recent years. Based on this, the project will bring the greatest benefit to OPEC + countries, including Russia, which will be able to increase oil and gas exports. ”

According to Yusufov, the project’s economic justification is obvious to him :

“The OPEC + member countries control more than 2/3 of the world's oil reserves. Such a merger in their own interests will not only be logical, but also economically sound. Provided that the site will be common. Since the creation of private and national energy cryptocurrencies – crypto-ruble, crypto-yuan and others – based on national currencies does not make economic sense. Some countries are speculating on the cryptocurrency provided by gold. ”

Also, Yusufov briefly spoke about the stages of the project :

“I see several options for the development of this project, as well as methodologies for calculating the cryptocurrency provision. So, it can be tied to a ton of conditional fuel (a unit of organic fuel accounting adopted in international payments) or to the value of the conditional CO2 emissions. Thus, in the future, this cryptocurrency will allow transferring trade in exchange energy resources such as gas and electricity to the platform, as well as become an effective platform for collecting and processing analytical information. The traceability of the transaction trace, characteristic of the blockchain, will ensure the origin of each barrel and verify the entire chain from production to the final consumer without additional costs. ”

According to the ex-head of the Federal Securities Commission of Russia Igor Kostikov, not only oil and gas can be connected to cryptocurrency, but also any resources that are exchangeable.

Yusufov commented on Kostikov’s opinion :

“Everything, in any case, rests on a reliable infrastructure, the creation of which requires not only investment, but also an increased trust limit. It, just, also gives a binding to oil. Perhaps the oil cryptocurrency will be the pioneering project that will create a reliable structure for the cryptographic market as a whole. "

Yusufov noted that :

“In the context of economic sanctions, it is more expedient to launch a project within the framework of the Union of the CIS countries, both energy producers (Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan) and consumers (Belarus, Ukraine)”.

He explained :

“We can take as a basis the revival of the idea of the Financial Center in Moscow, which the Russian government successfully developed some time ago. Creating a common base platform of oil cryptocurrency, just, and can become a strong foundation for active integration. But the prospects, of course, are much broader. In this regard, one should not forget about the current intergovernmental Agreement between the Russian Federation and Turkmenistan on cooperation in the gas sector until 2028 and the relevant contract for the purchase of Turkmen gas by Gazprom. Therefore, in the case of the project, such a center can become the first global center of cryptocurrency with real software. ”

The ex-minister stressed that the movement towards cryptocurrency is a global trend :

“In the world, everyone has already appreciated the opportunities provided by cryptocurrency. Recently, JP Morgan, the largest bank in the United States, launched its cryptocurrency backed by the US dollar, JPM Coin, and with its help wants to win a significant share of the corporate payments market. But a year ago, JP Morgan CEO James Dimon criticized cryptocurrencies and even called Bitcoin fraud. This is a very clear indicator of the direction in which development is taking place. ”

Publication date 02.02.2019
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