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Yeah, but it's not like the country runs on cryptocurrencies. Let's say you get a billion dollars worth of BTC, then what? You would want to convert to fiat, bo
by bufferoverflow 9y ago
Yeah, but it's not like the country runs on cryptocurrencies. Let's say you get a billion dollars worth of BTC, then what? You would want to convert to fiat, both foreign (for imports) and rubles (for local projects). They can definitely print more rubles, devaluing them, but no real way of getting dollars/euros.
- wutbrodo 9y ago"Laundering" their BTC seems like a pretty easy arbitrage opportunity: you can sell stuff to Russians for BTC and then convert your BTC to dollars, in both cases avoiding the conventional fund transfer systems that the US gov't exerts control over. I might be misunderstanding something about how this works though.
- bufferoverflow 9y ago1) You didn't explain where the dollars come from, while the country is under sanctions. And my billion dollars example was just an example, Russia needs hundreds of billions. 2) What do you mean by "sell stuff to Russians for BTC"? Did you mean buy stuff with BTC? What stuff is that?
- tehlike 9y agoYou can sell it to private investors at a discount in country.
- bufferoverflow 9y agoWe're talking about huge sums to run the country. Hundreds of billions of dollars every year. Even if you magically find some private investors with that kind of cash, they will quickly run out of cash. Then what? The problem is getting dollars/euros into the country. There's one solution I see: allow cryptocurrencies to be used as legal tender throughout the country, and for imports/exports too. But then you have zero control over money printing. It would be an interesting experiment, but I doubt Russian government will do it. Besides, they announce banning of cryptocurrencies like every other month.