The vice president of a Russian state bank has likened Bitcoin to “positive bacteria” that exist inside humans and are essential for life.
Speaking in an interview with Russian newspaper Kommersant, Vnesheconombank’s Vice President Nikita Smirnov added that Bitcoin was hitherto “the only successful implementation of Blockchain technology currently in existence.”
“Viruses are negative bacteria,” he said. “But Bitcoin in many sense represents positive bacteria which meet a person’s specific needs […] and allows him to exist.”
“Bitcoin is the world’s only Blockchain technology to have achieved wide usage and which continues to exist after years of people trying to beat it down but has not failed,” he continued.
The unlikely praise of Bitcoin, as well as Blockchain, sees Smirnov adopting a contrasting stance to fellow Russian banks, notably major player Sberbank.
Earlier this month, the bank’s Chief Herman Gref stated that he foresaw state-level Blockchain implementation within the next two-and-a-half years, while another spokesman considered it might happen even sooner.
Vnesheconombank, meanwhile, is also active in the Blockchain arena, currently preparing to unveil to customers what it describes as a “Blockchain-based B2B ecosystem.”