November 13, 2021

Russia to Launch Digital Ruble


Russia to Launch Digital Ruble
One ruble. Wikimedia Commons user Orange-kun

Russia is getting ready to test out the digital ruble, and it is not alone in launching a digital currency. But people who are not cryptocurrency enthusiasts want to know: What is a digital currency?

A digital version of a currency can be thought of as a third form of money: the first being cash, the second being non-cash (for instance, the money that gets direct-deposited into your bank account by your employer), and the third, for example, the digital ruble. The three types of currency are equivalent but probably difficult to understand. How is a digital ruble any different from a ruble direct-deposited by an employer?

The Russian Central Bank emphasizes that the digital ruble is not a cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies are decentralized (not issued by a government), and the identity of a holder is often impossible to determine unless the holder outs himself/herself. In contrast, the digital ruble will be held in electronic wallets "located" in the Central Bank.

Naturally, then, the digital ruble makes it easier for a government to track where all the money is going. Especially if people are not paying taxes on their under-the-table income (ahem). In many ways, digital currency is the opposite of cryptocurrency – though the idea and the digital infrastructure certainly came from that industry. One Russian blockchain and cryptocurrency expert says that the digital ruble will create the equivalent of the State Bank of the USSR. Another advantage of the digital ruble, according to Russian authorities, will be avoiding Western sanctions.

But this move is not limited to Russia. The United States and European Union are working on the digital dollar and euro, respectively, at the moment. China leads the pack, already using the digital yuan.

If you are thinking that cryptocurrencies are very prone to scams and hacks, and how is digital currency any different? – well, you're right. The fact is, the Russian government estimates it will need to spend R20-25 billion/$282.7 million (will those be cash or digital rubles?) to secure the system.

Many nations will have their digital currencies ready in the next 5-7 years. Russia had hoped to test the digital ruble in 2021, but with China already doing it, there is no hurry now. In fact, as Lenta.ru points out, watching other countries do it first can allow Russia to avoid all of their mistakes.

If you still do not quite understand how it will work... join the club. We guess we'll all find out soon.

You Might Also Like

Dirty Money
  • July 07, 2021

Dirty Money

“We are strengthening the protection of banknotes from the effects of harmful microorganisms.” – On July 5, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Central Bank Mikhail Alekseev explained plans for the modernization of Russia’s bank notes
Coming Up Roses
  • March 19, 2021

Coming Up Roses

After one year of pandemic, Russia's economy is looking dandy while others are on the verge of collapse. Or so says new research.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955