The strategic reserve of cryptocurrency will not only help reduce the U.S. national debt but also serve as a leverage against competitors, including China and Russia. This was stated by Sam Lyman, the director of government relations at the leading American mining company Riot Platforms, in his column for Forbes.
— The creation of a reserve will spark a frenzy around digital gold. This will slow down the flight of investors towards physical gold, and might even reverse it. In the hands of American politicians, Bitcoin could become a tool for economic state management, counterbalancing the attempts of China and Russia to move away from the dollar towards precious metals, — he notes.
Financial analysts believe that such a response from the West is a reaction to the active development of industrial mining in Russia. The President of Russia stated that Bitcoin and other digital currencies will continue to develop, and no one will be able to ban them, regardless of the fate of the dollar.
Currently, Russia ranks second in the world in terms of mining capacity, following only the United States. This year, mining in our country has officially become an industry. The federal law adopted for the sector promotes even more active development and allows for a rapid increase in the construction of data centers in regions with an excess of electricity.
At present, domestic industrial miners are capable of providing Russia with up to 240 billion rubles in cryptocurrency liquidity. The central bank has announced that the first cross-border payments in cryptocurrency will take place by the end of the year.
Major players in the Russian crypto industry believe that the concerns of the U.S. are well-founded, especially now that the industry is gaining momentum in our country.
— This explains why Russia should develop blockchain. Cryptocurrency is closer to traditional finance than it seems. Yes, it is not backed by bars in bank vaults, but it is predictable, and truly no one can influence it. The blockchain technology that underpins popular cryptocurrencies consists of algorithms of distributed international trust. And no one can unilaterally change the rules of the game. This is a return to traditional fundamental capabilities, where countries are free to make their own decisions about how and with whom to do business, — emphasized Igor Runets, the owner and CEO of Russia's largest data center operator BitRiver.
Moreover, the growth of the industrial mining sector is giving a boost to the development of a strategically important related field in Russia — artificial intelligence.
Data centers for cryptocurrency mining can be quickly converted to serve AI tasks. Unlike building a new data center, which takes at least two years, re-equipping a mining data center can be done in as little as one to six months. Furthermore, this does not require state funding. Industry leaders express their readiness to convert up to 20% of their data center capacities for AI projects. This will enable Russia to strengthen its technological sovereignty and claim leadership in the new global race.