- The public interest in crypto has died down, says Russian Prime Minister
- As a result, there is less urgency for regulations
While it doesn’t get as much attention as other countries such as Malta, Russia is, to an extent, a bit of a blockchain hub as it has seen certain applications of the technology such as in terms of voting. However, cryptocurrency is another issue in itself as crypto regulations have not been as well developed as in other countries with President Vladimir Putin even put out the word to government official stating that crypto regulations need to be put in place by July 2019.
Despite these issues, it seems that crypto regulations might not be coming as soon as expected or at least is not a priority at the moment as it was reported on May 16, 2019, that the Prime Minister of Russia Dimitri Medvedev stated that cryptocurrencies have lost their popularity and as such, creating regulations for them is not high on the list of priorities.
Falling Out of Favour
According to the prime minister, cryptos are not as interesting to the general population as they used to be so the demand for regulations regarding them has decreased. The prime minister stated that the issue of cryptocurrency regulations had been discussed at a forum in May 2018, during which he had advocated that regulations should be put forward for at least the most basic of crypto concepts and terms.
Now his tune has changed and the matter does not seem to be as urgent anymore
“The popularity of cryptocurrencies has decreased so far, which likely makes the regulation issue not that relevant already,” he stated.
Not Relying on Hype
While this is not the case across the world, this does go to show that crypto adoption and the industry general needs to work towards concrete structures that will embed crypto use permanently into the daily life of individuals. Blockchain is a new and exciting technology and like all things, will not be exciting forever and it will not be wise to bank on the future of blockchain and cryptocurrency being dependent on how fascinated with the public is by it.
Instead, with the proper channels being set up, individuals will make use of crypto not as a fascinating new trend but simply as a means of payment the same way fiat currency is and thus, crypto has a secure future among the masses, even when the hype dies down.