Russia Set to Legalize Bitcoin by 2018, Track Every Transaction

[Xester]

Only a year ago Russia’s Finance Ministry was threatening jail time to anyone using digital currencies.

In a major U-turn, it’s now edging closer to their acceptance as a legitimate financial instrument to open a new line of attack on money laundering.

The authorities hope to recognize bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in 2018 as they seek to enforce rules against illegal transfers, Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseev said in an interview. The central bank is developing a joint position together with the government on digital currencies, according to its press service.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-10/russia-caves-in-on-bitcoin-to-open-new-front-on-money-laundering
I'm not sure If I should be happy or sad since they are planning to Legalize bitcoin but in the same time, tracking transactions. I'm not entirely sure on how they plan to do it though and how It could be possible unless they are planning to run their own exchanges. I believe that Russians will need TumbleBit whenever this will happen.

I cannot believe this news. Russia was so strict with bitcoins before and in the end I will see an article telling me that Russia has a changed of heart. Well this is a very good news to the bitcoin community who are expecting a major price increase when the Russia will finally adopt bitcoin usage in their country. Even if they will set up restrictions, regulations on bitcoin it is not a bad news but more importantly is that Russia will accept bitcoin and we can really see bitcoins jumping to 2k$ in value this year.

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[manselr]

If such a huge country like Russia legalizes Bitcoin it will be only beneficial to Bitcoin ecosystem. The value will surely rise, but I don't think it will rise a lot. I wonder how will they track all the transactions since many people in Russia use TOR browser together with Tails and VPN-s (well VPN-s aren't a good source to hide your transactions) ? It will be very difficult to track all transactions to whom they belong if not impossible.

I think Russia will eventually ban everything. TOR, VPN etc, at ISP levels. They will go really hardcore. "If we detect VPN or TOR usage you are going to jail". Then what? Theres no way to obfucaste the BTC transactions...

[Mometaskers]

If such a huge country like Russia legalizes Bitcoin it will be only beneficial to Bitcoin ecosystem. The value will surely rise, but I don't think it will rise a lot. I wonder how will they track all the transactions since many people in Russia use TOR browser together with Tails and VPN-s (well VPN-s aren't a good source to hide your transactions) ? It will be very difficult to track all transactions to whom they belong if not impossible.

I think Russia will eventually ban everything. TOR, VPN etc, at ISP levels. They will go really hardcore. "If we detect VPN or TOR usage you are going to jail". Then what? Theres no way to obfucaste the BTC transactions...

That's making it sound more like a police state. Hopefully they'll have a hard time doing it. People will always find ways to get around this. It's not that we are doing illegal things, it's just that constant snooping would eventually make anyone fee uncomfortable. I wonder when governments will realize that.

Remember this...

When the time comes, all major countries will be like donald trump...

When the time comes, all major countries will take a U-turn and adopt bitcoin.

The last sentence, I like. The first one scares me. Our president is already like that.

I guess Russian bitcoiner will avoid using legal Russia exchanger, centralized wallet, service that require personal identity and they will use mixer to prevent government from tracking them
Even so, it's good to see another big country legalize bitcoin rather than ban bitcoin even with regulation/no anonymity.

Russians are the best hackers and that's due to the high mathematics level they teach in their schools. In other words, they are intelligent and I doubt they will fall for whatever the government is planning to do when It comes to using bitcoin in the upcoming months.

Did they also do that in their former territories? Most of the foreign hackers here in the Philippines are from Bulgaria and Romania and I've read those two countries used to be occupied by the Soviets.

[webtricks]

Another strength to Bitcoin! Earlier Japan and now Russia. It is really hilarious that Russian government thinks it can regulate Bitcoin. It is not as easy as they think. One can easily hold Bitcoin over VPN network. However, recognition by Russia will further add to demand for Bitcoin. Hence more boost to prices. 

[aoluain]

My first reaction when I saw the title yesterday was
"bloody hell, they want to TRY and take back control of peoples financial movements"

But yea its going to be pretty difficult if bitcoin users are using proper anonymity steps
but I think most of the underhanded illegal financial deals are currently being done through
Dash, Monero and others and not so much on Bitcoin.

Going forward I would say this will be implemented by more if not all countries
as they loo to claim a slice of taxable income.

Is this something Satoshi was trying to avoid by creating the concept of decentralised banking?

Will this affect Bitcoins value in the future?

Knowing that big brother is watching [may not be able to see much] are more people willing to use it?

[digaran]

What does it even mean tracking every transactions? are they stupid or something thinking that they can afford to track every transaction?
With mixing services and VPN-Tor services in the game plus web wallets it's virtually impossible to keep track of everything, they can't even know if someone is dealing with bitcoin in their own country, but lets assume they can do all they say they will going to do, it'll cost them more than the value of those transactions specially if a mixer has been used.

[target]

Japan made it quicker to implemented it its no surprising to see some other countries like Russia to also get there.
Some of the developers here in bitcointalk are from Russia too. They were the ones very aggressive in this business so its not strange to see them follow. Some countries have their own digital currency, I think its best to also implement their own.

[HongKong]

Russia is finally going to legalize Bitcoin huh, that's funny because the whole Russia and Bitcoin thing is an on and off relationship with two bipolar entities trying to decide if they like each other. Russia legalizing Bitcoin would be a smart move from Russia only because it seems like they are kind of behind on the whole electronic payment style thing. There's people in Asia already using it and the people in Europe are link of messing around with it so Russia has the move to stay old-school or try to jump into the bandwagon.

[leopard2]

Sounds like an ad for Monero to me 

[xuan87]

I am a bit confused because in one hand it said illegal and now they are ready to accept, I think the government lost the battle with bitcoin, but by recording every transaction there will still doubt for people to used bitcoin but it is still better than banning bitcoin, legalize is good for adding new user, but by revealing every transaction, it will just the same with using fiat

[Dimelord]

Only a year ago Russia’s Finance Ministry was threatening jail time to anyone using digital currencies.

In a major U-turn, it’s now edging closer to their acceptance as a legitimate financial instrument to open a new line of attack on money laundering.

The authorities hope to recognize bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in 2018 as they seek to enforce rules against illegal transfers, Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseev said in an interview. The central bank is developing a joint position together with the government on digital currencies, according to its press service.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-10/russia-caves-in-on-bitcoin-to-open-new-front-on-money-laundering
I'm not sure If I should be happy or sad since they are planning to Legalize bitcoin but in the same time, tracking transactions. I'm not entirely sure on how they plan to do it though and how It could be possible unless they are planning to run their own exchanges. I believe that Russians will need TumbleBit whenever this will happen.

Following china,Russia has taken this step.They have realized that they cant ban bitcoins.But at the same time,they even dont want to lose their earnings as tax from bitcoin earnings.It would not be a surprise if soon india too follows this same procedure

[Hazir]

I knew Russian sooner or later will legalize bitcoin. Russian government knew exactly that every attempt of banning bitcoin will backfire.
They never had strong control over citizens and enforcing bitcoin restrictions is impossible to maintain.
So now Russia will embrace and help Bitcoin, but in return bitcoin will be 'civilized and castrated'. How?
They might create government controlled exchanges and other satellite services.
Russians will have to use these government friendly BTC services or pay the price if found hiding their coins.

[Mbah Tyo]

This new name is great news if bitcoin could be used officially the users in Russia was, is now able to transact openly, because I think that digital currency is not wrong if used in accordance with existing rules

[DoublerHunter]

This new name is great news if bitcoin could be used officially the users in Russia was, is now able to transact openly, because I think that digital currency is not wrong if used in accordance with existing rules

The more that their is a rule for any kind of cryptocurrency then there is a high chance for that to be more organized in a particular country. Russia is one of the strict country but they still manage to adopt and accept bitcoin to their country and that is a good sign for bitcoin users because it means pump because of the possible demand.

[BlackPanda]

This will be a very good thing for the development of bitcoin. More countries are going to legalize bitcoin then it will be very good.
we know at this time the Japanese have started, and Russia will help bitcoin be better. This will increase the price of bitcoin.