This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed bitcoin and digital currencies for the first time on the nation’s domestic TV network, Russia 24.
Putin announced that the Bank of Russia has been exploring possible use cases of the blockchain technology and its applications. Although the technology can be used as a method to manage or record transactions, Putin explained that the whole currency [bitcoin] is problematic because it is not backed by anything.
In his exact words, Putin stated, “Bitcoins are backed by nothing, and this is the major problem.”
However, Putin also announced that Russia is not rejecting the technology and bitcoin itself, and does not plan to prohibit bitcoin anytime soon. However, he also explained that there are fundamental issues to be addressed before using and implementing bitcoin and its underlying blockchain technology.
“We do not reject anything, but there are serious, really fundamental issues related to its wider usage, at least, today,” he added.
While Putin went on about bitcoin and its potential use cases, he did not mention anything about bitcoin regulations, restrictions and legislation in Russia, which is a positive.
“While Mr. Putin didn’t say anything concrete about bitcoin legislation in Russia, it’s definitely a good sign that our government doesn’t want to prohibit something before getting a better insight in the field,” Indacoin CEO Stanislav Kosorukov announced.