Is Russia Working On An Oil-Backed Cryptocurrency?

The former Minister of Energy in Russia, Igor Yusufov has purportedly announced a new cryptocurrency backed by oil in order to bypass trade and financial restrictions. Yusufov’s investment corporation Energia is currently going through the last stages of development for the road map on its cryptocurrency.

According to reports, Yusufov believes that digital assets like cryptocurrency could have an impact on the influence that the US dollar has on the global community and aid multiple nations gets deals with fiat price fluctuations.

According to Yusufov:

“The introduction of a system of settlements in cryptocurrency on the energy market hypothetically allows us to avoid the costs associated with the use of currencies that are not backed up – the unpredictability of exchange rate fluctuations, the commission for currency exchange, trade restrictions. Such a project can make a significant contribution to the development of the Russian and international digital ecosystem and set a new bar for commercial infrastructure, the use of blockchain and smart contracts for non-financial services.

In the current situation of the oil market and the instability of payments in dollars – the logic of the development of the digital economy on a global scale suggests exactly this path of development. After the launch of the cryptocurrency platform, oil-producing countries will be able to maneuver with respect to financial and trade restrictions, which have become too many in recent years. OPEC+ member countries control more than 2/3 of the world’s oil reserves. Such a union in their own interests will be not only logical but also economically justified.”

The former Minister says that the cryptocurrency, backed by oil, will be able to create a trustworthy structure for the cryptographic market. In addition, Yusufov proposed a cryptocurrency settlement system for other natural resources saying, “perhaps the oil-backed cryptocurrency will be the pioneering project that will create a reliable structure for the cryptographic market as a whole.”

According to him, the project will be the first one to be launched in the CIS (Commonwealth Independent States). This will include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

“In this regard, one should not forget about the current Intergovernmental Agreement between the Russian Federation and Turkmenistan on cooperation in the gas sector until 2028 and the relevant contract for the purchase of Turkmen gas by Gazprom. Therefore, in the case of the project, such a center can become the first global center of cryptocurrency with real security.”

Currently, Russia is developing regulations for cryptocurrencies and are set to bring them in next month in order to “provide blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies the opportunity to develop.”