Russia: Former Minister for Finance and Sberbank Chairman Speak about Blockchain’s Potential
During the business lunch at Sberbank of Russia, the bank’s chairman German Gref and former minister for finance of Russia Alexei Kudrin shared their vision of blockchain’s potential in Russia. In particular, they described the way the technology could possibly alter the country’s public management.
According to Interfax Russia, Alexei Kudrin said:
“Basing on what I heard, blockchain means the following to me: any person may enter a database, extract all required documents to buy a land plot, form the package in an hour’s time, send it to relevant entities, and once it is confirmed, get an answer in an hour. This is certainly a revolution.”
“Also I dream that when a politician promises and proposes something, anyone could see whether his or her statements comply with the government resources and scenarios it may use. I’m probably being a bit ironic or daydreaming right now, but generally we all will have to be more compliant to the rules. Thus, it will cause us to be more efficient in producing results and negotiating.”
“The government, unfortunately, develops even slower […] and implements those technologies slower.”
Gref, for his part, noted:
“The same thing is taxation. Any taxpayer will be able to trace their particular payments. Generally, they say that taxation system becomes personalized, that you’ll be able to pay taxes for particular needs, and trace what your payment is spent on. It is a completely different concept. We will have to realize many things, we will have to completely alter our way of thinking.”
However, both speakers generally omitted bitcoin issues in their speeches.
Earlier, German Gref expressed his interest in cryptocurrency and even confessed he held some amount in bitcoins. In this relation, there is a question whether the discussion on legalization or status quo for bitcoin in Russia is closed.
Meanwhile, two major cryptocurrency exchanges have been blocked in Russia this week. The first one was Bitstamp, which, however, eventually restricted access for Russia-based customers at its own accord. The second one was BTC-e.com, however, its inaccessibility turned out to be only partial.
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