Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on the introduction of the digital ruble and the creation of an appropriate electronic platform. The document is posted on the official Internet portal of legal information.
An additional form of national currency will be issued along with existing forms of money.
“The Russian ruble will now have three forms: cash, non-cash and digital,” the document says.
It will be possible to make a transaction with the new monetary format using the digital ruble platform, a special information system. Its operator will be the Bank of Russia.
The Central Bank will determine the tariffs for transactions with the digital ruble and the timeframe for which Russian banks must provide customers with the opportunity to use transactions with the new currency. For citizens, the cost of transactions with the digital ruble will be free, for businesses – 0.3% of the payment amount.
The law, with the exception of certain provisions, will enter into force on August 1, 2023.
What is a digital ruble close 100% Alina Dzhus/Gazeta.Ru
Digital ruble is a unique electronic code (token). They will be able to pay for goods and services, transfer them to other accounts, make transactions with financial instruments and assets.
“Now we have cash (banknotes and coins in our wallets) and non-cash (money in bank accounts, on cards), and in addition to them, there will also be a third form – digital,” says the materials on the website of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.
Wallets will be opened on the platform of the Bank of Russia. Operations with digital rubles will also take place there. Access to wallets will be through the usual remote channels: mobile banking applications and online banking. Russians will be able to use the digital currency at their discretion, just like cash and non-cash.
Each person or company can only have one digital wallet. Individuals will be able to replenish it by 300 thousand per month.
“Citizens, just like now, will be able to independently choose which form of the ruble to use – cash, non-cash or digital. The choice is entirely up to the person, the Central Bank assures. “At the same time, if someone transfers digital rubles to you, you can instantly transfer them to your bank account at any time, and then, if you wish, withdraw cash from an ATM or bank cash desk.”
At the same time, the digital ruble is fundamentally different from the cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency does not have a single issuer and there is no single center that would bear obligations for it. Digital rubles will be issued by the Bank of Russia, they will be backed by gold and foreign exchange reserves and pegged to the value of the national currency. The Central Bank will be responsible for the safety of digital rubles.
Individuals will start using the digital ruble in 2025
Test transactions with the digital ruble may take place as early as August this year, transfers between legal entities are planned for 2024. And mass implementation can begin in early 2025. The head of the Central Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, announced this at a meeting with the government in July this year.
“We will start with basic operations and next year we will expand to other operations, including one-touch payments (NFC), – TASS quotes Nabiullina. — We will test transfers between legal entities, smart contracts. We really need this piloting to set up the entire system and check its continuity.”
“We are moving forward in stages,” the Central Bank reports. — This is a large-scale project, and we do not plan to rush to wide implementation. First, we need to conduct a pilot on real digital rubles with real clients, work out basic operations with banks (opening and closing digital wallets, transferring digital rubles between citizens, paying for purchases and services using a QR code). In the future, the range of operations will be expanded.
The decision on scaling the digital ruble will be made based on the results of passing all stages of the pilot.