The Russian monetary authority is continuing to reveal more specifics about its future digital currency, and it is now rumored to be considering having charges on digital Ruble operations to generate revenue. Russia’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) operations would be subject to lower costs than those associated with bank transfers, according to Kirill Pronin, the bank’s head of the financial technology department.
According to a report in the local journal Prime published on Wednesday, in regards to the CBDC, the fees on CBDC exchanges will not be higher than those charged by Russia’s Faster Payments System (FPS), a provider that allows individuals to make fast inter-bank transfers of funds. The FPS system, which was established in 2019, allows individuals to send up to 100,000 rubles ($1,360) without incurring any charges on their transactions. For transfers above this amount, the system levies a fee equal to 0.5% of the total transfer sum, but no higher than 1,500 rubles ($20) per transfer each day.
As initially disclosed, the Russian central bank intends to conduct the first trial tests for a digital currency in January 2022, with the first results expected in the second half of that year. Digital currency is intended to serve as a third kind of money, complementing cash and non-cash. One of its primary benefits has been highlighted as the possible decrease in the price of payment services.
Distrust Of Crypto Still Prevalent
Elvira Nabiullina, the governor of the Bank of Russia, says that governments should consider embracing CBDCs as a viable alternative to decentralized cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin to replace them. Speaking at the Russian State Council on Thursday, the official is said to have argued that a sensible government should not push for the acceptance of cryptocurrency.
Nabiullina slammed cryptocurrencies for supposedly being pseudonymous and not being supported by anyone, claiming that he retains an overwhelmingly negative standpoint on cryptocurrencies as commercial currencies that falsely claim to be money. However, because people are in desperate need of alternatives, they have determined that they should work on this coin with the assistance of their initiatives. As he has already stated, they should work on developing the digital Ruble.
However, while the Russian Central Bank has maintained its harsh position on cryptocurrency, several departments as well as government-associated groups have begun to investigate the business, alongside Duma launching a functioning body to supervise Russia’s expanding crypto mining market. Despite Russia’s ban on cryptocurrency payments, the Russian State Hermitage Museum earned more than $400,000 in September through an auction of nonfungible tokens on the Binance cryptocurrency platform. The Russian president stated last month that, while “private cryptocurrencies” such as Bitcoin “may operate as a unit of account,” the digital assets are “very volatile.”