Just in: Russian Lawmaker proposes to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve

[Jating]

Recently, Putin: Who can stop Bitcoin? No one. And so I guess that is the signal that Tkachev could have been waiting before making this proposal.

MOSCOW, December 9 - RIA Novosti. State Duma deputy from the New People party Anton Tkachev sent an appeal to the Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov with a proposal to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve in Russia similar to state reserves in traditional currencies; RIA Novosti has a copy of the document.
"I ask you, dear Anton Germanovich, to assess the feasibility of creating a strategic Bitcoin reserve in Russia by analogy with state reserves in traditional currencies. If this initiative is approved, I ask you to submit it to the government of the Russian Federation for further implementation," the appeal says.

https://ria.ru/20241209/rezerv-1988201715.html

I guess since they are moving forward with de-dollarization and obviously doesn't want to used it. Or maybe they want to get away from the financial sanctions from the West. So it really make sense that they will go with Bitcoin right now.

Gonna be a race moving forward as who's who or how much countries are going to stock pile Bitcoin in the future.

Trying to play devil's advocate here, could Bitcoin be the de-facto currency of the "criminals"?

Related threads:
Just In: Swiss law maker says "Switzerland needs a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve!"
Just In: Brazil’s Congress Introduces Bill To Create Strategic Bitcoin Reserve

[PrivacyG]

Bitcoin will likely play a big role every time Fiat will be useless.  But I expect it to only hold a temporary role until a controllable alternative is found.

While it is awesome to hear this from big leaders like Putin, they probably have a great opinion about Bitcoin for their own use while having a bad opinion about it for mass usage.  Think of it as an underground network they need to use in order to solve their own problem, after which they end up damning it.

I will be extremely surprised if the leader of China, Russia or even The United States will actually encourage people to Decentralize their finances and break the link between themselves and Banks or the Government.  This event is impossible in my cards.

[Majestic-milf]

Trying to play devil's advocate here, could Bitcoin be the de-facto currency of the "criminals"?

That's not for me to answer  .
 
The way I see Anton's proposal, it's just as if every nation-state is trying to jump into the party and have a slice of the Bitcoin cake and this is fueled by how much Bitcoin has progressed and for countries to see potential in creating reserves for Bitcoin, I feel it won't be long before there'd be a struggle for who owns the biggest Bitcoin reserve and it could lead to a certain desire for monopoly?
 Anton is just aligning his proposal with the Central Bank of Russia's desire to integrate digital assets into international payment systems so it's a question of if his proposal would be looked into or if it would just be yet another individual to bring up the idea of their country having a Bitcoin reserve like we've been hearing of late.


Here's a link to what you're saying since the one you provided is in Russian : https://cryptoslate.com/russian-lawmaker-proposes-strategic-bitcoin-reserve-to-counter-geopolitical-challenges/

[franky1]

Trying to play devil's advocate here, could Bitcoin be the de-facto currency of the "criminals"?

That's not for me to answer  .
 
The way I see Anton's proposal, it's just as if every nation-state is trying to jump into the party and have a slice of the Bitcoin cake and this is fueled by how much Bitcoin has progressed and for countries to see potential in creating reserves for Bitcoin, I feel it won't be long before there'd be a struggle for who owns the biggest Bitcoin reserve and it could lead to a certain desire for monopoly?
 Anton is just aligning his proposal with the Central Bank of Russia's desire to integrate digital assets into international payment systems so it's a question of if his proposal would be looked into or if it would just be yet another individual to bring up the idea of their country having a Bitcoin reserve like we've been hearing of late.

look at the documents of the BIS(bank of international settlements)
it governs the regulations of central banks international reserves

https://www.bis.org/bcbs/publ/d580.pdf (jul 2024)

all countries central banks have to declare their holdings of crypto from january 2025(if they have over 0.3% of fiat reserves in crypto) and they are allowed to purchase upto 2% of their fiat reserves in crypto but would need to sell said crypto once the crypto prices total 5% of their fiat reserves, whereby they can only re-purchase crypto if the amount drops below 2% of their fiat reserves again

there are 2 groups
1=stable coin based backed by countries crypto(this would include usdt and also countries own cbdc)
2=instable coin such as bitcoin, ethereum(this would include direct holding like the coin itself and indirect like ETF's of said coin)

the threshold is 2-5% of total fiat value of instable crypto whether in direct coin or ETF. it does not mean upto 5% in bitcoin and 5% in btcETF and 5% in ethereum.. its 5% TOTAL in all crypto whether direct or indirect

[TravelMug]

Gonna be a race moving forward as who's who or how much countries are going to stock pile Bitcoin in the future.

Yes, this could be the next big move for Bitcoin, or at least this could be the reasons why we will see this bull run to be around $150k-$180k this 2025. As not just whales and institutions who are going to buy large amount, but the government itself.

Trying to play devil's advocate here, could Bitcoin be the de-facto currency of the "criminals"?

This has been the argument since the beginning, and yet no one can proved that it has been taken advantage of criminals. On the other hand, fiat is still the king for them and so I do not think that they will used Bitcoin for their "criminal" activity.

[_act_]

Bitcoin will likely play a big role every time Fiat will be useless.  But I expect it to only hold a temporary role until a controllable alternative is found.

Fiat will not become useless. Bitcoin and fiat are seen to people as something that is not the same. They prefer to hold bitcoin and use it as investment but they prefer to be use fiat for spending. Also the countries do not promote local usage of bitcoin but just as a strategic reserve.

I will be extremely surprised if the leader of China, Russia or even The United States will actually encourage people to Decentralize their finances and break the link between themselves and Banks or the Government.  This event is impossible in my cards.

This is not about decentralizing their finances. They will still have their fiat and some other assets in their reserves. Also if bitcoin is part of the reserve, that is not decentralization. Government can not decentralize their finances.

[betswift]

i can't help but think if countries like Russia are seriously considering bitcoin as a reserve asset, it shows just how much potential the crypto has in reshaping global finance, The idea of moving away from traditional fiat currencies especially the US $ feels like a natural step for countries tired of being at the mercy of Western sanctions. But then there's that whole criminal angle that peoiple bring up bitcoin's privacy features make it a go to for illegal activities. It's kind of a double edged sword

As it was said - all try to grab their share due to the US doing and thinking about it too.
And Russia is inclined even more to do so - after all, they need some leverage to be able to maneuver more during these times.

[fikrett]

I agree with PrivacyG here - it's not about decentralization or love for BTC, it's purely for the gains and the ability to have a backup pillow, and in our case, it still is a welcomed development, however, it's probably only a draft.
So more time is needed to see what the US started to really swing around the world.

[john_egbert]

Bitcoin will likely play a big role every time Fiat will be useless.  But I expect it to only hold a temporary role until a controllable alternative is found.

Fiat will not become useless. Bitcoin and fiat are seen to people as something that is not the same. They prefer to hold bitcoin and use it as investment but they prefer to be use fiat for spending. Also the countries do not promote local usage of bitcoin but just as a strategic reserve.

Totally.
For now - BTC is seen mostly in that regard for the people.
Because there are no advantages to doing otherwise on a bigger scale - and maybe it's good for now, only the future will show us what will be done with BTC by people when it is adopted more.

[shield132]

It's very interesting to know if they approve it, what will be their next step. Will they acquire a fixed amount of Bitcoin every day like El Salvador does or will they buy it secretly, without announcing the date and quantity? Russia has very cheap electricity rates while China, which produces mining equipment, is their neighbour. Since this goes to the government level, I think Russia will heavily invest in Bitcoin Mining and they'll fund Chinese companies to build more powerful and efficient miners.

I will be extremely surprised if the leader of China, Russia or even The United States will actually encourage people to Decentralize their finances and break the link between themselves and Banks or the Government.  This event is impossible in my cards.

That's impossible, no country leaders will encourage people to decentralize their finances and break the link between themselves and banks or governments because that means the government asking for their own mass destruction. That means the government will not be able to control how much money anyone has in their country, they won't be able to control money laundering, and they won't be able to collect taxes because everyone will try to work/hire without showing payroll to the government. This will be a collapse for them.

[FortuneFollower]

It's very interesting to know if they approve it, what will be their next step. Will they acquire a fixed amount of Bitcoin every day like El Salvador does or will they buy it secretly, without announcing the date and quantity? Russia has very cheap electricity rates while China, which produces mining equipment, is their neighbour. Since this goes to the government level, I think Russia will heavily invest in Bitcoin Mining and they'll fund Chinese companies to build more powerful and efficient miners.

Sounds pretty logical, yet, when govs were logical with crypto?
We need to wait things out, as such drafts are sometimes dragged across years to be even looked at.

[ABCbits]

Bitcoin will likely play a big role every time Fiat will be useless.  But I expect it to only hold a temporary role until a controllable alternative is found.

I wonder whether BRICS currency will be the controllable alternative.

While it is awesome to hear this from big leaders like Putin, they probably have a great opinion about Bitcoin for their own use while having a bad opinion about it for mass usage.  Think of it as an underground network they need to use in order to solve their own problem, after which they end up damning it.

I agree. That's why they talk about adding Bitcoin for their treasury reserve, while never talks about legalize Bitcoin as payment method or give people more freedom to use non-custodial software or service.

[hero_the_bossman]

I agree. That's why they talk about adding Bitcoin for their treasury reserve, while never talks about legalize Bitcoin as payment method or give people more freedom to use non-custodial software or service.

It's either beneficial to the government or it's packed up in such a way that it isn't seen at first glance.
But it totally is. Almost all the time.
Times never change.

[Lucius]

~snip~
While it is awesome to hear this from big leaders like Putin, they probably have a great opinion about Bitcoin for their own use while having a bad opinion about it for mass usage.  Think of it as an underground network they need to use in order to solve their own problem, after which they end up damning it.

Everyone has the right to their opinion, but to call a man who is responsible for aggression against another country with the aim of seizing its territory and ethnic cleansing a great man is completely incomprehensible to me. I do not agree that every promotion is good, especially if BTC will be in the same sentence with a man who has been indicted for war crimes and is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths in the past 3 years.

In general, I am not happy that any country could start investing in BTC in order to add it to their national reserves, because when that starts to happen, it is logical that a lot of BTC will end up in the hands of those who are the reason why BTC was created.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

I guess since they are moving forward with de-dollarization and obviously doesn't want to used it. Or maybe they want to get away from the financial sanctions from the West. So it really make sense that they will go with Bitcoin right now.

Before Putin and Russia can take their leading roles to succeed in de-dollarization with a currency for BRICS, he will attempt to use what is available now. It's Bitcoin and cryptocurrency blockchains, they can simply make these things legal in their countries and move on with deployments and attachments these things to their central and commercial banks.

It saves their times, it helps them to avoid risk of failure because their new currency for BRICS or any CBDC can be failed, but Bitcoin and big altcoin blockchains are here to serve them, free of development costs.

Putin can be stupid and obssesed with power, with The Great Russia dream, and stucks with wars, but he is smart to know he can abuse available blockchains for avoiding sanctions.

[rodskee]

I guess since they are moving forward with de-dollarization and obviously doesn't want to used it. Or maybe they want to get away from the financial sanctions from the West. So it really make sense that they will go with Bitcoin right now.

Gonna be a race moving forward as who's who or how much countries are going to stock pile Bitcoin in the future.

lots of politics  involved here

russia is part of brics that is pushing for the dedollarization but at the same time it is most likely that russia and usa will have better connections as trump seems to be fond of putin so to say i am guessing that trump’s stance on crypto has spurred russia into action i won’t be surprised is china joins in the mix as they also want to reevaluate their regulatory policies on crypto

I do not agree that every promotion is good, especially if BTC will be in the same sentence with a man who has been indicted for war crimes and is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths in the past 3 years.

bitcoin is neutral it is just a currency that can be used by anyone i don’t think russia holding bitcoin will mean that automatically bitcoin will be linked to putin himself trump isn’t that great of a man either but everyone was excited when he started mentioning bitcoin because these presidents represent their countries bitcoin is being associated to russia not putin

[Synchronice]

I guess since they are moving forward with de-dollarization and obviously doesn't want to used it. Or maybe they want to get away from the financial sanctions from the West. So it really make sense that they will go with Bitcoin right now.

It's the USA's fault that Russia is trying to de-dollarize (didn't know if this word needed hyphen in between). The USA flexes it's power and influence too much and this only motivates others to get free from the USA as soon as possible.

If Russia really creates a strategy Bitcoin reserves, then this means that the party is on, we should expect serious adoption and regulations. Trump wants to mine the rest of the Bitcoins in the USA, he will try to attract miners and then have control over them, i.e. set the censorship on Bitcoin transactions but Russia will also try to attract miners and share a significant portion of hashpower to get rid of the USA's influence over transactions. But I don't understand this, Bitcoin is not anonymous and the USA can track and leak Russia's addresses. The USA can force its partners to not accept transactions from Russian Bitcoin addresses. I think that Monero is the only real solution for Russia but it's so anonymous that it's unacceptable too.

Could Satoshi imagine that we would go this far?

[satscraper]

It’s one thing to want something and another to be able to do what Russia want. I wander what shit they are going to spend to acquire Bitcoin for this strategic reserve. Most of their  assets are either frozen by West  or lost in the course of their  invasion to Ukraine, ^{vox, et praeterea nihil (Lat}).

[PrivacyG]

Fiat will not become useless.

When everybody imposes sanctions on you and you have very limited ways to move Fiat around, Bitcoin is like a miracle.  These sanctions rendered the usage of Fiat useless for Russia and this is their only escape for now.  Like they said, nobody can stop Bitcoin.  This is why they like it.

I doubt the idea for a strategic Bitcoin Reserve came up because they love how Decentralized it is and how much Freedom it brings.  I mean.  They do love it, as long as they are the only beneficiary of its advantages.  I suspect they are thinking about creating such a Reserve particularly to avoid sanctions when ever necessary.

-----

I wonder whether BRICS currency will be the controllable alternative.

Possibly.  I am thinking of it as a possibility too.

-----

Everyone has the right to their opinion, but to call a man who is responsible for aggression against another country with the aim of seizing its territory and ethnic cleansing a great man is completely incomprehensible to me.

Why are you turning this political and why do you put words into my mouth?  I never said Putin is a GREAT leader.  I said it comes from a BIG leader like Putin.

Even if I did say Putin was a great leader, I am a believer in REAL Freedom of Speech and I would not see a problem with it.  Real Freedom of Speech does not have limits.  Limited Freedom of Speech makes it not Free.  To me, it is completely incomprehensible to see so many people think somebody has a right to their opinion UNTIL something they do not like is being said.

Before you further comment, I will paste a quote or two from long ago when I underlined my neutrality for not only the Russia versus Ukraine war but also in other subjects of discussion too.

I am trying to remain as neutral as possible about this war and this is getting me way too confused.

I am neutral as to who is contributing to the Bitcoin repo as long as their contributions are neutral too.

While I am very neutral, between Trump and Harris, Trump is the one to choose IF we are talking Cryptocurrencies only.

Anyway, while I always read both paid and free reviews of stuff that I want to order or use while keeping a neutral view, I can not ignore the fact that public reviews generally tend to be more biased towards the product so

[Lucius]

Everyone has the right to their opinion, but to call a man who is responsible for aggression against another country with the aim of seizing its territory and ethnic cleansing a great man is completely incomprehensible to me.

Why are you turning this political and why do you put words into my mouth?  I never said Putin is a GREAT leader.  I said it comes from a BIG leader like Putin.

Even if I did say Putin was a great leader, I am a believer in REAL Freedom of Speech and I would not see a problem with it.  Real Freedom of Speech does not have limits.  Limited Freedom of Speech makes it not Free.  To me, it is completely incomprehensible to see so many people think somebody has a right to their opinion UNTIL something they do not like is being said.

Isn't everything today political in one way or another? I've already written that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I don't understand why anyone would pay attention to a man who doesn't deserve it in any way? I don't share your opinion that he is a BIG leader, nor would I classify him as a human being - I have had the opportunity to see the evil he represents and I will never philosophize too much about who is or is not entitled to their opinion because that is not the point of this story.

Before you further comment, I will paste a quote or two from long ago when I underlined my neutrality for not only the Russia versus Ukraine war but also in other subjects of discussion too.
~snip~

That's your personal matter again - but being neutral is almost the same as being on the side of evil - because if you say "I don't care", then in a way you approve of all the bad things that happen.