Cryptocurrencies are known worldwide, but not every actual corner of the world has become full of specialists of this new type of currency. Most of Russians only discovered it last year, and only a few people over the country really knows the whereabouts of the virtual assets. However, its popularity is actually growing, with more than 180,000 posts about it on Russian social networks.
A brief history of cryptocurrencies in Russia
Russian government have shown interest for the Bitcoin and other currencies for a while now, but most of the decisions they took has been with the intention to regulate it as much as possible. For example, activities such as cryptocurrencies mining is forbidden in Russia. Also, it’s not allowed for you to directly use Bitcoins or other for transactions at the moment. A cryptocurrency bill is under preparation, for it is going to fix various taxes related to the use of these virtual assets.
Russia also intends to launch its own cryptocurrency, and it would be directly exchangeable with the Russian Ruble. With such currency, it might become easier for foreigner investors to start business relationships with Russian economic operators. In a nutshell, Vladimir Putin isn’t going to ban cryptocurrencies from Russia, but instead, he will reinforce its regulation and the power the government will have over it. Thus, any activities related to the cryptocurrencies that aren’t declared to the government will be considered illegal in the country.
The cryptocurrencies and the Russians
The VCIOM organization in Russia did a survey in order to see what does Russia population thinks of Bitcoin in general. It has been highlighted that Bitcoin is mainly popular in big cities, and mostly among those between 18 and 24 years old but also among men. 71% of male Russians approached for the survey exactly knew what the Bitcoin is, and two third of internet users in Russia knows about it as well. In Moscow, 74% of citizens don’t need to be told about this cryptocurrency anymore because they already what is need to be known about it.
If it’s made clear here that people in large cities are already familiar with Bitcoin, we can’t the same for the rest of the country. Some doesn’t know about it at all, while others know but has some misconceptions about it, for example, they think it’s totally forbidden to own them in Russia, which isn’t exact. Only 44% of Russians know that you can buy it and own it, but you can’t just it as freely like you would in another country.
Will Russians catch the Bitcoin fever too?
Actually, the Russian people only know too little about the Bitcoin to invest in it. Most of them are still doubting of the level of safeness of the blockchain, mainly because they don’t know how it works. Let alone the people who thinks Bitcoin is illegal in Russia, we can’t expect it to suddenly become popular this year. Those who know enough about it consider it as risky as the time, because the prices are too unstable, and less than 10% of the people approached for the survey plans to buy Bitcoins in a near future.
Some experts says it might change once the Bitcoin regulation is settled in Russia, and also when a lot more information about this currency will be available. We must mention that Russian government is planning several things related to cryptocurrencies in general, so they might do some effort in order to let their people know more about it, and even promote the use of some of them.
