Could russia be the 1st to embrace a petro BTC

[Hydrogen]

Russia is open to accepting bitcoin for its natural resources exports, the chairman of the country’s Congressional energy committee, Pavel Zavalny, said in a press conference on Thursday.

Zavalny explained that Russia is open to accepting different currencies for its exports, beginning with natural gas, depending on the buyer’s preferred method of payment. However, the chairman said terms will depend on the importing country’s foreign relations status with Russia.

“When it comes to our ‘friendly’ countries, like China or Turkey, which don’t pressure us, then we have been offering them for a while to switch payments to national currencies, like rubles and yuan,” Zavalny said during the press conference. “With Turkey, it can be lira and rubles. So there can be a variety of currencies, and that’s a standard practice. If they want bitcoin, we will trade in bitcoin.”

Zavalny’s statement comes on the heels of President Vladimir Putin’s comments on Wednesday demanding that ‘unfriendly’ countries pay for Russian gas in rubles. Putin’s message was clear, but it is unclear whether Russia can unilaterally change existing contracts agreed upon in euros.

The State Duma’s energy committee chair echoed Putin’s decision while adding that the country should also accept gold.

“When we exchange with Western countries…they should pay in hard money,” Zavalny said. “And hard money is gold, or they must pay in currencies which are convenient for us, and that is the national currency – ruble. That relates to our ‘unfriendly’ countries.”

Russia being open to accepting bitcoin shift the tide as Putin last year had dismissed the possibility in an interview at the Russian Energy Week event in Moscow.

“I believe that it has value,” Putin said at the time, referring to Bitcoin. “But I don’t believe it can be used in the oil trade.”

The current size of the Bitcoin market and its liquidity do pose questions as to whether the peer-to-peer currency could be used widely by countries in international trade at this moment.

However, by being open to the possibility and eventually conducting pilot trades with interested parties, Russia could set the stage for an upcoming trend where nations choose to transact in the stateless, global monetary system.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/markets/russia-open-to-sell-gas-for-bitcoin

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When the US dollar was used to buy and sell oil on a global scale, it was referred to as the petro dollar in this role. In 2018, china announced it would denominate oil transactions in its native currency, the yuan. At which time, people referred to it as the petro yuan. China also initially announced it would offer yuan exchange for gold, to setup something resembling a gold standard. Unfortunately, this aspect of the announcement never materialized.

Today it seems russia is prepared to sell natural gas and oil in bitcoin. Could this signal the beginning of a petro bitcoin? Russia also seems to be offering to sell its natural resources in exchange for precious metals like gold. A move which precious metals supporters who have long called for a return to a gold standard might approve of.

If russia sold oil in exchange for BTC could this represent yet another major step towards cryptocurrency mass adoption? Will other world leaders view these announcements as a trend for the future.

[_act_]

Today it seems russia is prepared to sell natural gas and oil in bitcoin. Could this signal the beginning of a petro bitcoin?

If russia sold oil in exchange for BTC could this represent yet another major step towards cryptocurrency mass adoption? Will other world leaders view these announcements as a trend for the future.

Yes, petrol bitcoin, there would be more, this would be the begining of countries to be accepting bitcoin as a means of payment. Likely a time is coming countries will have bitcoin reserves, probably starting from El Salvador and obviously, Russia.

Definitely, countries are starting to recognize bitcoin, then more adoption.

[RickDeckard]

While that would signal a greater step towards bitcoin adoption, I believe we all know why Russia is willing to accept BTC for their petrol - the rubles is in shambles at the moment, and their recent order for other countries to pay for gas using rubles[1] has been facing opposition from around the world. They are really looking for any way that they can fund their country - and the war - so anything that has value must for sure be on the table to be accepted. From one side I would like to see this happened but considering current world circumstances, I don't know if any country will pay in BTC for any kind of commodity (let it be gas, wheat or even petrol). The good news is that if they do eventually pay in BTC at least the ruble isn't being used, meaning that it's value should continue the same (in theory).

As a side note, it's great to know that Germany is cutting their ties with Russia (or at least most of them) by the end of 2024[2] but I do wonder how will they manage the current energetic needs until then...
[1]https://www.politico.eu/article/germanys-scholz-rejects-putins-rubles-for-gas-demand/
[2]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-25/germany-targets-end-to-russian-gas-imports-by-middle-of-2024

[Yogee]

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If russia sold oil in exchange for BTC could this represent yet another major step towards cryptocurrency mass adoption? Will other world leaders view these announcements as a trend for the future.

Definitely a huge step for mainstream adoption.

The first country that came to my mind was El Salvador. This is definitely a welcome news for them and it looks like they are one of the countries that has a "friendly" relationship with Russia. BTC is already a legal tender to them and another country accepting it as payment for gas so yeah.

[bittraffic]

When currencies can be devalued by government itself by printing more and more like the USD, it affects every economy and the inflation is shared all through the entire world so its not going to be surprising that affected countries will move to another currencies. Bitcoin is a lot sensible because no countries can print more of it.

But I don't see Chinese Yuan to be trusted as well. There is no point in doing so because China could also print knowing that they have CBDC that can be used against anyone.

[hatshepsut93]

Who exactly will pay in BTC? The West won't use anything other their own currency. China and India are openly anti-Bitcoin. This leaves only a bunch of economically smaller countries, so even if such transactions will happen, it will be purely symbolic, rather than representing a trend shift.

Bitcoin can also be a large cybersecurity risk. We see Anonymous, or whomever operates under that name, hacking Russian government and involved private companies left and right, now imagine if they hack Russian BTC wallets and drain them? And before you say "cold storage", remember that the US successfully used airgap-jumping malware against Iran in the past.

[Beerwizzard]

In 2018, china announced it would denominate oil transactions in its native currency, the yuan. At which time, people referred to it as the petro yuan. China also initially announced it would offer yuan exchange for gold, to setup something resembling a gold standard. Unfortunately, this aspect of the announcement never materialized.

Seems like they have change their minds on it. Years have passed and we still didn't hear anything about  yuan as international currency.

Today it seems russia is prepared to sell natural gas and oil in bitcoin. Could this signal the beginning of a petro bitcoin? Russia also seems to be offering to sell its natural resources in exchange for precious metals like gold. A move which precious metals supporters who have long called for a return to a gold standard might approve of.

Most likely this claim was just said for sake of saying it. Low tier legislators in Russia often say different bullshit in order to get quoted in the media.
However, if it really happens. Then it is possible to use Bitcoin liquidity to support bitcoin transactions but then we might get another wave of bans or shutdowns due to sanctions. US politicians would easily choose to confront cryptocurrencies in order to shit russia.

[Pomogator]

It really could be. Russia is trying to get away from paying for gas for dollars as much as possible. I think these are extreme measures that Russia will take. It is more likely that the payment will be in rubles, because then Russia will strengthen its ruble. Of course, if bitcoin becomes a currency for paying for gas and oil, then this will greatly increase the rate of bitcoin, I'm really looking forward to it!

[Flexystar]

I am not sure why we connecting all the dots to main stream adoption? Have anyone not seen the other side of the Russia yet? They are tangled up in hundreds of sanctions and they are mostly related to banning import export, businesses, currency exchanges, economical interference etc so that Russia can crush inside out to stop the war and to stop us from going into world war.

Russia is simply throwing bitcoin card because they are running out of money tbh. They want to sell the oil in anyways possible.

I would love to see this as mainstream adoption but I don’t think Russia is in the position of doing same.

[bittraffic]

It really could be. Russia is trying to get away from paying for gas for dollars as much as possible. I think these are extreme measures that Russia will take. It is more likely that the payment will be in rubles, because then Russia will strengthen its ruble. Of course, if bitcoin becomes a currency for paying for gas and oil, then this will greatly increase the rate of bitcoin, I'm really looking forward to it!

This could be more recent than this news I think but Joe Brown of Heresy Financial says Russia pegged their rubles to gold taking this article from Reuters as source of the information. You can also watch his youtube here about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbNoddwc1Lo

The world gone nuts these days and who knows what could happen in the next few months for what we know there are over 30 countries abstain in sanctioning Russia and will still be buying products from them. If they buy gas from Russia, they are going to make it still.  Even without any of them buying gas with BTC.

[kryptqnick]

There are at least a couple of threads about this news on the forum, but since the focus here's on mass adoption, I'll reply anyway. I don't think that it was more than a remark by a Russian official, and that it would actually lead to payments in Bitcoin. I also hope it won't happen because that would be bad for Bitcoin's reputation and would probably trigger more regulation and restrictions in Western countries. It's bad enough that Bitcoin would buy oil and gas, things humanity must get away from to save the planet, but on top of that, it would go to Russia, the terrorist state, which is causing many deaths every day because it decided to invade a sovereign country in the 21st century.

[STT]

Its more likely that Russia would trade for goods required in exchange for oil rather then require BTC.    The main thing is does Russia hold BTC as a reserve currency, at least one country does but so far its not in mainstream exchange back and forth international to settle trade balance.   I think Russia would need to then make BTC legal tender and allow taxes payable in BTC and so on, I think the current environment is probably changing their mind forever with regards to banning it but I doubt they do make it a reserve asset.

[Oceat]

I am not sure why we connecting all the dots to main stream adoption? Have anyone not seen the other side of the Russia yet? They are tangled up in hundreds of sanctions and they are mostly related to banning import export, businesses, currency exchanges, economical interference etc so that Russia can crush inside out to stop the war and to stop us from going into world war.

Russia is simply throwing bitcoin card because they are running out of money tbh. They want to sell the oil in anyways possible.

I would love to see this as mainstream adoption but I don’t think Russia is in the position of doing same.

As far as I know, not all country imposing sanctions to Russia so they still have some choices left most especially in Asian countries. If the West trying to impose a sanctions to them then it's different on the East since most of the country don't want to get involve in the conflict between Nato and Soviet Union.

Anything can be possible with Bitcoin and using BTC to trade oils is not an exception. Thus, this will increase the adoption rate as fast as possible but the question is, who will be going to trade with Bitcoin in exchange for oils?

[darkangel11]

Who exactly will pay in BTC? The West won't use anything other their own currency. China and India are openly anti-Bitcoin. This leaves only a bunch of economically smaller countries, so even if such transactions will happen, it will be purely symbolic, rather than representing a trend shift.

Bitcoin can also be a large cybersecurity risk. We see Anonymous, or whomever operates under that name, hacking Russian government and involved private companies left and right, now imagine if they hack Russian BTC wallets and drain them? And before you say "cold storage", remember that the US successfully used airgap-jumping malware against Iran in the past.

Maybe not so symbolic. Among countries that continue to buy Russian oil are Turkey, Hungary, Bulgaria and Greece.

India isn't really anti-bitcoin. It used to be banned there, so there's an opposition, but they banned it because some politicians were using it to take bribes, so a reaction was to be expected. It's great they aren't trying to ban but rather regulate it.

ON the other hand bitcoin might be labelled blood money if the war continues and countries keep paying Russia with it.

[kaya11]

Maybe this explains the current surge in price of Bitcoin, I saw it on local news that Russia is accepting payments through bitcoin for it's oil. This is adoption and it will be just a matter of time when other countries follows this especially for those who rely on Russian oil. A petro BTC is probably possible, in this step they have made, they are showing that they are acknowledging the crypto currencies potentials and we are just seeing the initiative here, may will be expecting more to come.

[CaVO32]

Maybe this explains the current surge in price of Bitcoin, I saw it on local news that Russia is accepting payments through bitcoin for it's oil. This is adoption and it will be just a matter of time when other countries follows this especially for those who rely on Russian oil. A petro BTC is probably possible, in this step they have made, they are showing that they are acknowledging the crypto currencies potentials and we are just seeing the initiative here, may will be expecting more to come.

If they are hesitant before towards bitcoin, now, they are starting to realize the benefits of bitcoin because of the sanctions they are receiving from the world market. The petro BTC is very possible, so let us see in the next coming months how the Russian government will tackle their situation. The war seems not stopping yet, but a lot have lost their lives and so many infrastructures that were destroyed already.

[Lucius]

Today it seems russia is prepared to sell natural gas and oil in bitcoin. Could this signal the beginning of a petro bitcoin?

If Russia finds itself in a situation where it is really cut off from most of the world, then it will accept any method of payment that can bypass regular payment methods - after all, it is important to sell the product and charge for it. However, I would not go so far as to give the adjective petro to Bitcoin, because in the current situation it gives not only negative connotations, but will provoke the US and the EU to start strict regulations on Bitcoin.

If russia sold oil in exchange for BTC could this represent yet another major step towards cryptocurrency mass adoption? Will other world leaders view these announcements as a trend for the future.

I think that the statement of the Russian minister (or whatever it is) is a bit out of context, because as far as I understand, he said that they (Russia) will accept all alternative payment methods, even if someone offers Bitcoin. It is not known to me that any country that is still friendly to Russia has expressed such an intention, and in order to pay for Bitcoin, they must first buy it. And we all know that from the moment of purchase to the moment of payment, there can be a change in price - and that is a problem for both the buyer and the seller.

I do not see any indication of mass adaptation here, but only assumptions based on speculation.

[Moneyprism]

I think this is a bold step taken by Russia, because they were the first country to declare payment for oil using bitcoin ... and this might inspire other countries to accept bitcoin for their various payments

[dbc23]

selling Natural gas and oil for bitcoin is the only way Russians can interact with other foreign countries without spending more rubies in the foreign exchange market seeing how the Russian Rubie keeps declining following the numerous sanction surrounding their invasion.  If they must deal with countries that didn't serve them sanctions it's either the use crypto  or digital metal like gold which is a better barter option for them at the moment

[paxmao]

Russia is open to accepting bitcoin for its natural resources exports, the chairman of the country’s Congressional energy committee, Pavel Zavalny, said in a press conference on Thursday.

Zavalny explained that Russia is open to accepting different currencies for its exports, beginning with natural gas, depending on the buyer’s preferred method of payment. However, the chairman said terms will depend on the importing country’s foreign relations status with Russia.
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....

When the US dollar was used to buy and sell oil on a global scale, it was referred to as the petro dollar in this role. In 2018, china announced it would denominate oil transactions in its native currency, the yuan. At which time, people referred to it as the petro yuan. China also initially announced it would offer yuan exchange for gold, to setup something resembling a gold standard. Unfortunately, this aspect of the announcement never materialized.

Today it seems russia is prepared to sell natural gas and oil in bitcoin. Could this signal the beginning of a petro bitcoin? Russia also seems to be offering to sell its natural resources in exchange for precious metals like gold. A move which precious metals supporters who have long called for a return to a gold standard might approve of.

If russia sold oil in exchange for BTC could this represent yet another major step towards cryptocurrency mass adoption? Will other world leaders view these announcements as a trend for the future.

Translation: Putin's aggression has weakened the ruble to a ridiculous point. He is in need of reserves, the problem is that "unfriend countries" pay in USD or Euro that immediately get blocked, thus do not help paying for the war massive expenses.

Putin is happy to receive any payment that he can actually use. Yuan - no problem, gold - perfect!, bitcoin -perfect, can be exchanged fluidly, ...

For the "unfriendly", you have to buy rubles with your USD and then give us the rubles. This way, the USD cannot be retained nor blocked.