Qiwi Hopes Russia Would Only Ban Bitcoin, Not Bitcoin Technology

Last month, Russian payment company Qiwi announced that they are planning to float a new cryptocurrency called “bitruble.”

As soon as the news created a storm in the Russian media and global cryptocurrency enthusiasts, Russian officials cheered the plan. For example, Elvira Nabiullina, the Head of Russian Central Bank expressed favorable support for the plan.

But, other official within the Russian financial system has denounced the plan and labeled it as “illegal.” Commenting on the Qiwi plan, Russian Financial ombudsman Pavel Medvedev commented that “”It’s absolutely illegal, such technical hooliganism [is] absolutely inappropriate. The Constitution says who has the right to Russia to issue money - it is the central bank. The only currency in Russia is the ruble.”

Qiwi has already filed documents to obtain a trademark for their planned new cryptocurrency. Sources close to the company said that Qiwi is planning to back the currency with commodities in order to make it more viable and provide a more stable exchange rate.

Qiwi defended its plan by saying that they are already struggling to manage huge sums of financial transactions as one of the leading payment processors in Russia. By using blockchain technology they can reduce cost of their operation.

“We think that cryptotechnology is beyond any prohibition. Qiwi is a major processor, and load operation has always been a pressing challenge for us. We’d be happy to reduce costs for [our] back-office – that’s where our development actually originates. We are interested in anything that could reduce costs and expenses related to end-user services,” Representatives of Qiwi told ForkLog.

The comments from Qiwi were probably directed towards Russian officials, who proposed to ban Bitcoin in the country earlier in March 2015.

However, Qiwi is preparing the release the bitruble in 2016. The communications director of Qiwi, Konstantin Koltsov, told the media that although they think that the ban would only be imposed on Bitcoin, not Bitcoin technology. But, they would wait for the official reaction from the Russian Central Bank prior to launching the project.