Russia’s Parliament is Discussing the Legalization of Bitcoin

Russia’s National Cryptocurrency Development

In 2016, when the Russian Ministry of Finance was well-known for its disdain and intent to criminalize bitcoin activity, the country’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service, Rosfinmonitoring, was the first to discuss a national digital currency, that would be based on a network of both private and public blockchain rules.

In April 2016, Olga Skorobogatova, deputy chairman of Russia’s central bank, Bank of Russia, stated in a blockchain conference that the country could develop its own national digital currency.

Earlier this month, at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Olga Skorobogatova made it clear she saw cryptocurrencies as the future and even claimed that it was only a matter of time before countries would adopt national digital currencies. She revealed that the country’s central bank is testing digital currency pilots towards that end. Notably, she stated: