Elvira Nabiullina, governor of the central bank of Russia, came up with that information while speaking to the parliament, the Duma, regarding current plans with cross-border finance. In response to a question from a parliament member who also represents Duma’s financial markets committee, Nabiullina said that the Bank of Russia is not against the development of a gold-pegged cryptocurrency. However, she confirmed that the use of cryptocurrency would be within the scope of cross-border settlements and crypto would not take the upper hand in relation to fiat currency.

She added - “As far as settlements are concerned, we will consider your suggestion regarding what a cryptocurrency backed by gold would look like,” Nabiullina stressed the importance of using national currencies for international settlements. At a meeting of the State Duma, she referred to successful use of national currencies in settlements under the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), where significant development was achieved with the strategy. The bank of Russia recently released a policy brief pointing at the benefits and pitfalls of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

The bank believes that CBDCs could boost the national economy by reducing transaction costs and being a safer and more liquid type of asset. The only drawback of CBDCs is the lack of anonymity as compared to fiat currencies.

What is going on inside

An advisor to the president of Russia expressed similar opinion and suggested that introducing a CBDC in Crimea might get more investors in the region while bypassing sanctions. Cointelegraph recently published positive news that Russia and Venezuela are trying to reach an agreement on closing trade settlements using both Ruble and the Venezuelan state-owned digital currency, petro (PTR).

In reality, although the governor’s statement carries great importance as she represents one of the world’s largest central banks, most of the high-ranked staffs of the bank are still sceptical towards cryptos, and therefore Duma’s digital currency plan is unlikely to see the faces of light any time soon.

An administrator was quite straightforward regarding this matter - “We are generally opposed to cryptocurrencies being launched into our monetary system. We do not see the possibility that cryptocurrencies could act as monetary surrogates.” To put it simply, the Bank of Russia is just carrying out its constitutional duties in studying the Duma’s token plan.

But it is almost impossible to deny that the latest crypto related events in the lower house of Russia mark a milestone as those involved a central bank officially going through the motions of the development of a national cryptocurrency - one of the very few instances in the crypto economy's emerging history till date.

Possibility of crypto for a bloc

A recent buzz of developing standard crypto for the Eurasian Economic Union bloc also sounded in Russia. The deputy finance minister of Russia, Alexey Moiseyev, revealed in December 2018 that the country, along with the EEU’s four other member states -Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, had agreed to discuss the development of crypto for the economic zone.

The minister’s attitude was firm, and he called the project ‘inevitable’. If everything works as planned, the crypto could be launched in 2020 or 2021. The initiative is being thought as part of Russia’s response to the economic sanctions imposed by America in recent years.

The main objective of crypto development in the EEU is to achieve further financial independence and bypass dollar in their trade activities. For the time being, there has been no clear information on how the crypto will be developed like on what blockchain wand with what attributes.