Two countries currently facing sanctions from a number of Western countries, Russia and Iran, are discussing potential ways to utilize cryptocurrency to help reduce their dependence on US dollar-based commerce.
Iran’s fiat currency, the rial, has reached historically low values compared to the US dollar in recent months, due to US president Donald Trump withdrawing from the nuclear deal. Russia has also struggled vs the dollar due to sanctions from the US, the European Union, and their allies.
To escape the global banking system which is largely connected to the dollar, Tehran and Moscow have been in high level discussions about possibilities of utilizing cryptocurrency, according to reports from Interfax.
Part of these efforts include Iran’s Parliamentary Commission of Economic Affairs being “obliged the Central Bank of Iran to start developing proposals for the use of cryptocurrency.”
“Over the past year or two, the use of cryptocurrency has become an important issue,” the official reportedly states. “This is one of the good ways to bypass the use of the dollar, as well as the replacement of the SWIFT system.”
Earlier this year, Iran’s ICT Minister Mohammad Azari-Jahromi already confirmed that the nation is attempting to create a state cryptocurrency, with hints at a nationwide rollout if tests proved successful. Russia has also been working on its own state cryptocurrency (the cryptoruble) per Russian president Vladimir Putin’s direction.
The two cryptocurrency projects join Venezuela’s “petro” as some of the first publicly acknowledged state-sponsored cryptocurrencies. The petro was also created to attempt to evade repercussions of US-sanctions vs Venezuela’s fiat system.
In a meeting with government officials, Vladimir Putin’s economic advisor Sergei Glazev told the audience that state cryptocurrencies can be a useful tool for nation’s to avoid sanctions.
“We can settle accounts with our counterparties all over the world with no regard for sanctions,” he said.
