Russia, Iran explore launching joint gold-backed cryptocurrency

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Russia and Iran are discussing the possibility of the two parties expanding their cooperation to include the cryptocurrency sector as Moscow and Tehran mull developing a joint gold-backed stablecoin.

Reports about this cooperation came out after the Executive Director of the Russian Association of the Crypto Industry and Blockchain, Alexander Brazhnikov, told Russian media that the Iranian Central Bank was considering the joint creation of a cryptocurrency with Russia as a form of payment for international transactions.

According to Brazhnikov, the coin would be gold-back, which would help against volatility, noting that it would be usable in Astrakhan, which is a free-trade zone where Russia started accepting Iranian goods.

The discussions were acknowledged by Anton Tkachev, a member of the State Duma and the Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology, and Communications, saying the matter would be considered at the government mental levels after cryptos are completely regulated in his country, which is expected to happen in 2023.

Currently, the Russian Central Bank does not support the usage of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as a method of payment at home, though it allows it for international trade.

However, since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, the European Union banned European firms from offering any services to residents of Russia who are dealing in cryptocurrency.

However, the weaponization of the dollar by the EU's ally, the United States, against the West, put it in a corner as the rest of the world seeks other means of development away from those under Washington's hold.

Both China and Russia are already mulling means of promoting their currencies for international payments, including through the use of blockchain technologies, with Moscow kicking off remuneration for energy supplies in rubles.

Russia started developing its own national payment system when the US targeted it with sanctions in 2014. Back then clients of several Russian banks were temporarily unable to use Visa and Mastercard due to the restrictions. 

Russia getting sanctioned showed that Washington would not stop at anything to achieve its political interests, a main concern for China and India, as the latter has been developing its own national payment systems that could serve as an alternative to SWIFT.

Launched in 2017, Mir is a Russian banking system, meaning both "peace" and "world" in the language. With the West's current isolation measures of Russia, Iran, Cuba, and other countries from the SWIFT banking system, friendlier alternatives have been on the rise in a bid to combat the West's economic hegemony and aggression. 

Since the introduction of the new system, Russian banks have already issued more than 129 million MIR cards. They are currently accepted in Turkey, Vietnam, Armenia, South Korea, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia.

The Iranian finance ministry's banking and insurance department said in December that Iran could join the Mir payment system within months of when talks between Tehran and Moscow reach a conclusion. This, according to Qorban Eskandari, the department's head, could be in the very near future.