[2017-10-04] Russia will be teaching citizens about cryptocurrencies

[DowBit]

Canal Rossiya24 released an interview with the Russian Minister of Finance. Anton Siluanov announced that his government would be working on educating society in the area of cryptocurrencies with an emphasis on the risks associated with investing with virtual money.

“We see here more risks than recommendations on investing into instruments of such kind. That is why an explanation of potential consequences of investments into unregulated and hardly predicted instruments will be an issue of financial literacy we will support,” - said Siluanov

https://dowbit.com/russia-will-be-teaching-citizens-about-cryptocurrencies/

[jseverson]

It's great for governments to take initiative in introducing the concept of cryptocurrencies to their citizens. Very few people know about it, and even some of those who do somehow believe that it's a bubble. Formal education about the subject matter would only increase interest, and consequently, demand.

Still, this makes me anxious. Siluanov explicitly states that he sees more risks than recommendations. If they're using this platform to discourage people from getting involved in crypto, then they might as well not talk about it.

[laurenB7742]

I've been growing up in Slovenia and I have to say we had very little to none financial literacy included in the curriculum. This is strange, because Slovenia is very developed in IT today and especially in the Blockchain industry, despite it being very small country.
I would expect high schools and faculties of Economics to teach about crpytocurrencies, maybe after few years, crpytocurrencies will be taught at every school.

[SvenBomvolen]

They would better teach their citizens about positive aspects of Bitcoin and crypto-currencies, but not about dangers and risks only. I suppose people who invest in Bitcoin clearly understand what is their risk about. I didn't meet a person who was investing in Bitcoin without any fear about "what if the price will drop or the Government will ban Bitcoin" and so on. I believe that only few people in Russia know bitcoin, they need to spread the knowledge about digital currencies, cause of the biggest mass of people stay not educated about that.
But I see that it is just profitable to Russia to say about danger of crypto-currencies, to make people afraid of it.

[imsotiredofmoviereboots]

If they are just going to emphasize that investing in cryptocurrencies are very risky then they are just telling everyone to stay away. What's the use of educating others if they are just going to tell everybody that crytpo is more likely to scam you? They should be fair.