State expert claims fast-second strategy over first moved advantage for ruble, as it carries more financial risk Russia

A Russian official contended that the nation ought to have launched research on a central bank digital currency four years ago in order to claim leadership in the field.

However, according to Dmitry Peskov, a special representative of the President of the Russian Federation on digital and technological development, the first-mover advantage also brings a number of risks in terms of financial stability.

According to news service RBC on Oct. 23, Peskov said that a fast-second strategy in developing a CBDC could be more efficient than becoming the world’s first issuer, stating:

“The financial risk is so great that it seems to me that a fast-second strategy is much more effective than trying to be the first. Let’s see what the leader can do, and what impediments they will run into.”

Peskov expressed that Russia’s CBDC — a digital ruble — could turn into a reality in three to seven years if improvement begins now.

Russia’s central bank official delivered a CBDC counsel paper on Oct. 13. In this way, Anatoly Aksakov, an individual from the Russian State Duma and a key delegate of Russia’s crypto-related enactment endeavors, guaranteed that the advanced money will enter a pilot stage in the principal half of 2021. Aksakov is certain that the forthcoming advanced ruble “is the future,” while decentralized crypto tokens, for example, Bitcoin (BTC) have no future.

Financial experts in other countries are also taking a wait-and-see approach to CBDCs. On Oct. 19, Jerome Powell of the United States Federal Reserve claimed that it’s better to get it right than to be first. The central bank of New Zealand expressed a similar stance, claiming that “there is much work to be done” in the CBDC area before issuing a national digital currency.