Russian head of the committee on Energy about selling oil and gas in Bitcoin

[Coin_trader]

There’s an ongoing trending topic on tweeter about the video interview of RF head committee on Energy that they are considering assets like Bitcoin as payment for there oil and gas. The video is in Russian Language and still needs to be verify by Russian native speaker. This news maybe ignite the recent fluctuations on Bitcoin right now.

Anyone here can verify and translate the content of the video on source link: https://mobile.twitter.com/BitcoinComfy/status/1506982883076063236?s=20&t=wOZOKzpCqJ9SjG_J64-oaQ

[Lucius]

It seems to be news from the official Russian media, but the emphasis is on the following "Russia considering energy sales to 'friendly' nations in Bitcoin", and if we know that only 5 countries supported Russia in what it is currently doing, and 35 were not for or against - then we need to ask ourselves who will pay for oil and gas with Bitcoin? A nice society has gathered, but at least we know where politics is rotten and where we can expect some new dictator like this one who is currently in the spotlight.

[NeuroticFish]

"Russia considering energy sales to 'friendly' nations in Bitcoin"

This news is cheered by those who care only about the price (which has indeed started going up), but I fear it will give even more ammo to Bitcoin's opponents.

And BTW, the whole news as I've read it, tells that they consider asking Bitcoin from the friendly countries and rubles or gold from the others.
However, changing the means of payment currency is not allowed by most of the existing long term contracts, so this looks to me like pushing the countries take the (not so easy) decision of finding better providers than Russia.

[suzanne5223]

Yes, for those that care about the surge in the price of Bitcoin this is good news but in the season when this decision was made by the Russian to escape the US sanction while their Senate is already feeling discontent with the decision of the El Salvador government of signing Bitcoin as legal tender this could lead to something else.

[kaya11]

If this is somehow true, then it is time full your bags now as there could be a massive pump. I was seeing my bitcoins and the price really went up. There are lots of positive news came lately and it is a good sign. Hope there could b more of this, and maybe not only Russian oil but also other products too.

[HeRetiK]

While the foreign reserve sanctions have brought to light the risks of holding reserves in foreign fiat currencies I don't think Bitcoin would necessarily benefit from Russian influence at this point. Bitcoin is more tolerated than welcomed as is, a close association to the Russian economy would probably make Bitcoin a currency non grata for good.

Either way it seems unlikely to happen as the Russian government has more interest in trying to restabilize the Ruble by increasing demand for it. Things would maybe look differently if Russia had more vested interest in Bitcoin but given their rather hostile stance in the past they are unlikely to benefit from rising Bitcoin prices; hence they are more likely to focus on the Ruble instead. Especially since denominating export prices in Ruble would enable them to nudge the exchange rate towards a more favourable direction.

[Zlantann]

This development is a sweet but bitter news. it's a good news for those that only care about the profit or money aspects of bitcoin. This news affects the reputation of bitcoin because it would be generally perceived by most people as an instrument used by autocrats and war criminals to invade sanctions. I am sure this was not the original intent of the creators of bitcoin. If this comes into effect, the enemies of Russia would automatically become bitcoin's foes.

[Husires]

We must go through a stage where the dollar is exceeded in oil payments before we move to an alternative to bitcoin, gold to replace the dollar in conflict areas or those on which America is imposing sanctions.

• If we make a quick comparison or vote between gold and bitcoin, we will find that gold will win quickly.
  
• Bitcoin is not the ideal alternative at the present time.
• It would be ideal if the market capacity of Bitcoin exceeds 10 trillion dollars.

Source: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/EJMBE-10-2017-016/full/html

Using gold as an alternative to the dollar in oil is the appropriate solution, but countries like to strengthen their local currency and print more money.
it will be a lot of chaos, the adoption of Bitcoin will increase this chaos.

[teosanru]

There’s an ongoing trending topic on tweeter about the video interview of RF head committee on Energy that they are considering assets like Bitcoin as payment for there oil and gas. The video is in Russian Language and still needs to be verify by Russian native speaker. This news maybe ignite the recent fluctuations on Bitcoin right now.

Anyone here can verify and translate the content of the video on source link: https://mobile.twitter.com/BitcoinComfy/status/1506982883076063236?s=20&t=wOZOKzpCqJ9SjG_J64-oaQ

This can't be true, because of a very simple reason, Russia currently wants its currency to recover a bit, after the recent economic sanctions it's currency is bleeding, the only way to strengthen your currency is by increasing exports in your own currency, or receiving payments in other foreign currencies in which you are due for repayments, economically it would make zero sense for them to receive anything in bitcoin because when you go to an open market to sell bitcoins, amount might be so high that you would end up paying huge sllippages on that moreover selling it to your own people would mean reducing the Money supply from their hands. So I don't really believe this is an official video.

[romero121]

This news isn't confirmed. Someone from Russia needs to give the clear translation. In some news it is mentioned that if some country prefer to pay in bitcoin, then Russia is ready for that. If this is a rumour then we can see the market getting disturbed in the coming days. The price crossing $44k is connected with the video interview going viral on Twitter. One of the article which I read gave this as the interview statement meaning from Chairman of the Committee on Energy in Russia, Pavel Zavalny.

‘The currencies used can be different and it’s a normal practice. If it’s Bitcoin, then it’s Bitcoin.’

[Sterbens]

Whether it's true or not, bitcoin is always an alternative choice when all payment methods are inaccessible. That's the main thing why Bitcoin is absolutely unavoidable if oil and gas accepts other payment alternatives. There are only 2 sides, namely negative and positive, besides that there will be pros and cons among people who tend to secure their assets either to Bitcoin or the like. What we do is when it is confirmed that there is a Bitcoin transaction for gas and oil then the amount and value will affect the movement in the bitcoin market.

[fiulpro]

It seems to be news from the official Russian media, but the emphasis is on the following "Russia considering energy sales to 'friendly' nations in Bitcoin", and if we know that only 5 countries supported Russia in what it is currently doing, and 35 were not for or against - then we need to ask ourselves who will pay for oil and gas with Bitcoin? A nice society has gathered, but at least we know where politics is rotten and where we can expect some new dictator like this one who is currently in the spotlight.

That is exactly why they know what they are doing is impossible thus they are trying to do things like :

1. Give discounted price to India
2. Threaten Ukraine by nuclear weapons
3. Asking ukranian government for neutrality for the pipelines passing through the land

Am preety sure they would be considering setting the NORD back up and at the same time this all works only if they decide to quit it all.

Payment in Bitcoins is handled for sure but it's going to be definitely trackable as well, which the government right now not looking for am sure.

[DdmrDdmr]

I found a video where someone narrowed down the relevant part of the declarations (which of course may have trimmed part of the context) to just over a minute:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK75tTBvo60

Perhaps someone native to the language can assess whether the context of potentially accepting bitcoin is delimited to "friends", or not.

I tried to use the auto translated subtitles on Youtube (on the video select Settings -> Subtitles -> Auto Translate -> Russian (auto generated to English)), but the result is not good enough to make out the proper context.

[Wind_FURY]

"Russia considering energy sales to 'friendly' nations in Bitcoin"

This news is cheered by those who care only about the price (which has indeed started going up), but I fear it will give even more ammo to Bitcoin's opponents.

And BTW, the whole news as I've read it, tells that they consider asking Bitcoin from the friendly countries and rubles or gold from the others.
However, changing the means of payment currency is not allowed by most of the existing long term contracts, so this looks to me like pushing the countries take the (not so easy) decision of finding better providers than Russia.

No ser, it is truly cheered by those who care about Bitcoin as a permissionless, censorship-resistant protocol with an underlying nature that can weaken political strongholds. Those who care only about the price are afraid that that would happen, because "Russia Bad will Bitcoin Bad Price Crash".

[davis196]

The news in my country are that Russia is going to be accepting rubles for selling oil and gas to the hostile countries(USA,Canada,UK,Austrslia and most of European countries).There aren't any news about Russia accepting cryptocurrency payments for selling oild and gas to the friendly or neutral countries.
Actually,there aren't any indications that the Russian oil and gas companies replaced dollars and euro with rubles in the recent days.
All the news about Russia and Bitcoin are just a big speculation.I would never believe that Russia would turn into a Bitcoin friendly country.Even if that happens,the western world will impose sanctions over the cryptocurrency industry and the BTC price would collapse.

[NeuroticFish]

No ser, it is truly cheered by those who care about Bitcoin as a permissionless, censorship-resistant protocol with an underlying nature that can weaken political strongholds. Those who care only about the price are afraid that that would happen, because "Russia Bad will Bitcoin Bad Price Crash".

For Russia and China, Bitcoin is only a toy they can use and throw away. If Russia will indeed sell gas for Bitcoin to whatever sanctioned countries, we may get back to "bitcoin is illegal money" and businesses/individuals getting restricted in using it.
I do understand your point, this kind of use would show how powerful Bitcoin actually is. But if then Bitcoin will no longer be accepted in the western world... it will be pretty bad, and not only for the price.
For "underground" use there are the privacy coins. But I would not be happy with Bitcoin used again only by (some of) us. I want to see Bitcoin accepted literally everywhere, by every merchant/business. The more legit the better.

[pooya87]

I don't have any proof for obvious reasons but bitcoin payments have already happening for at least 3 years, this statement may only be paving the way to making it official and then grow it in size, since so far only a small percentage of trades are taking place using bitcoin.

Basically the reasons I have are:
1. The eastern block has been moving away from US dollar for some time now. The challenge has always been the "replacement" and there are multiple candidates. There is Mir (payment system) from Russia, there has been a lot of agreement between Russia and China over the past couple of years for other payment systems too. There has also been discussions over using bitcoin and their own centralized altcoin created and controlled by the governments (eg. eCNY).

2. Cryptocurrencies have been discussed among Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members, mainly for regulation but also bitcoin was considered as a means of payment.

3. Iran, a member of SCO and under about 3500 sanctions LOL, has been using bitcoin for import/exports for at least 3 years (1.5 year was official). A portion of those trades are with Russia.

[bitzizzix]

But at least this is good news for bitcoin and the war will prompt countries to re-evaluate their currency dependence.
and a carefully designed global digital payment system can improve the settlement of international transactions while reducing the risk of money laundering and corruption, whether true or not what I say is bound to happen in the future. And Russia will be an example, although I don't know the truth yet, but bitcoin will be a solution for them to stay afloat.
I don't judge because Russia invaded Ukraine and received a lot of harsh sanctions, and I mainly think that bitcoin is any solution and I'm glad the price of bitcoin is currently on the rise.

[pakhitheboss]

The emphasis is more on Ruble and Gold but if they have to then they will also consider Bitcoin as a mode of payment that what it meant. We need to wait and watch in this situation. It is still not certain that Russia will accept Bitcoin. In the past too Gold was preferred by oil producing countries which led to the Gulf war at that time Bitcoin was not invented. If that happens then it will be a great news for Bitcoin.  

[Wind_FURY]

No ser, it is truly cheered by those who care about Bitcoin as a permissionless, censorship-resistant protocol with an underlying nature that can weaken political strongholds. Those who care only about the price are afraid that that would happen, because "Russia Bad will Bitcoin Bad Price Crash".

For Russia and China, Bitcoin is only a toy they can use and throw away. If Russia will indeed sell gas for Bitcoin to whatever sanctioned countries, we may get back to "bitcoin is illegal money" and businesses/individuals getting restricted in using it.

Bitcoin is a permissionless, censorship-resistant cryptocurrency, that can be used as a Medium of Exchange, and as form of self-sovereign Store of Value. If they take Bitcoin as a ground-breaking technology, OK. If they take it as a mere "toy" they can use and throw away, OK but will be laughable, their choice.

I do understand your point, this kind of use would show how powerful Bitcoin actually is. But if then Bitcoin will no longer be accepted in the western world... it will be pretty bad, and not only for the price.

For "underground" use there are the privacy coins. But I would not be happy with Bitcoin used again only by (some of) us. I want to see Bitcoin accepted literally everywhere, by every merchant/business. The more legit the better.

It will be their loss in my opinion, and Bitcoin will crawl into the systems that the legacy "legal entities" will not serve, and make those markets more efficient. The price might crash, but I'm confident it will surge again.