BREAKDOWN: The Game Theory Behind Russia's New Crypto Policy
CoinDesk Podcast Network
CoinDesk
4.8 • 689 Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2022
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sticking it to the U.S., a hedge against China or both?
This episode is sponsored by Nexo, Arculus, FTX US and MELD.com.
On today’s episode, NLW explores possible reasons why Russia’s recent 180 on cryptocurrencies might make sense. As the country prepares to legalize and regulate cryptos as a type of currency, he looks at things from the lens of Russia’s relationship with the U.S. and desire to avoid being cut off from the SWIFT network, as well as from the lens of Russia’s relationship with China, and China’s (possible) desire to have a non-sovereign alternative to a future digital yuan.
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“The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with editing by Rob Mitchell, research by Scott Hill and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Adam B. Levine is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsor is “Vision” by OBOY. Image credit: masterSergeant/iStock/Getty Images Plus, modified by CoinDesk. Join the discussion at discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | there is a recognition on the part of Russia that a digital ruble is unlikely to displace any |
| 0:05.3 | sort of U.S. dollar hegemony or to compete with a Chinese digital currency in the years going |
| 0:10.5 | forward. If you were stuck uncomfortably between an old monetary hegemon and a potential |
| 0:15.7 | new monetary hegemon, maybe figuring out a regime that enabled the proliferation of a non-sovereign alternative |
| 0:22.0 | wouldn't look so bad. |
| 0:24.7 | Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW. |
| 0:28.8 | It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. |
| 0:34.7 | The breakdown is sponsored by nexo.io, Arculusculus, and FtX, and produced and distributed by |
| 0:39.9 | CoinDesk. What's going on, guys? It is Friday, February 11th, and today we are talking about |
| 0:47.6 | the game theory behind Russia's new crypto policy. First, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown, please go subscribe to it, |
| 0:57.1 | give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dig deeper into the conversation, |
| 1:02.3 | come join us on the breakers discord. You can find that link in the show notes or go to bit. |
| 1:07.8 | com slash breakdown pod. As usual, a quick disclosure, in addition to them being a |
| 1:14.0 | sponsor, I also work with FTX. Now, a final note before we get into today's show. This week, |
| 1:22.1 | I'm incredibly pleased to have a special sponsor in Meld. If you've ever wondered how the rich are able to spend |
| 1:29.4 | their money and still stay rich, well, it's because they borrow against their assets. Meld is |
| 1:35.5 | creating a protocol that can be used by anyone, and which offers this exact service, but in a |
| 1:40.8 | decentralized way. Users of Meld's protocol will be able to borrow dollars, euros, and other fiat currencies |
| 1:46.6 | against their cryptocurrencies. |
| 1:48.7 | If you want to learn more about the first defy non-custodial banking protocol today, |
| 1:53.1 | go check out Meld.com. |
| 1:55.2 | That's MELD.com. |
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