Russia's Central Bank: Bitcoin is a digital commodity

Olga Skorobogatova, deputy chairwoman of the Central Bank of Russia, has called for virtual currencies to be considered a “数字商品.”

In an interview, Skorobogatova said that the regulatory approach adopted by the central bank will refer to the model of digital commodities and set specific taxation, management and accountability.

The issuance of virtual currency is not backed by the gold standard and its supply is not controlled, which will sooner or later cause instability in the financial market.

The central bank announced that Russia plans to formally regulate cryptocurrencies starting in 2018, and a specific regulatory plan will be introduced before next month.

In April, speaking about the Russian government’s initial proposals for regulating Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseev said the country wants to be able to monitor transactions as much as possible, regardless of whether that is feasible in practice.

The state needs to know the identities of the participants in every transaction in this financial chain at every moment.

In a transaction, participants must clearly know the identities of the buyer and seller, just like how banks operate.