Can Crypto be used to circumvent Russian Sanctions? - Splinterlands Giveaway #41

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Hello fellow Hivians!

So before getting into this topic I want to make one thing clear. We on Hive are from all parts of the world including both Ukraine and Russia. We are a community and as such we will respect each other and our potentially differing beliefs.

That said, one of the major topics I knew would start to circulate in US politics as a result of economics sanctions has shown its face. What is that you might ask? Well, that Russia could circumvent sanctions such as being kicked off SWIFT by using crypto exchanges.

Technically, this is true... One of the beautiful things about crypto currency, decentralization, makes it so. No central body can control who is able to transact on chain. US politicians however are only looking at it in a negative light and are in fact using this as an opportunity to prep for harsh regulations in the future.

Although crypto does in fact allow Russia to bypass sanctions to a degree (exchanges would have to be willing to do business with Russia) that isn't entirely bad as well. Quite frankly, this war is being fought for Putin and a small subsection of Russian supporters in Ukraine. The average Russian citizen could care less about annexing another piece of Ukraine however the average Russian is 100% being impacted by these sanctions via watching their life savings (in rubles) going to shambles. As much as this is a required tactic in the eyes of the West to destabilize Russia, I can't help but feel sorry for the Russian population.

This is where crypto can make a play. Russians are currently not being barred from most of the major exchanges which means that those average citizens can also 'bypass' these sanctions by exchanging their Russian fiat for crypto thus protecting themselves. The Russian state can also do this and given one of my previous posts noting their recent laws 'legalizing' crypto, it makes sense why Russia has recently done a 180 on their view of crypto. Its almost like they were prepping to utilize crypto more heavily as a means to continue operating normally.

Anyways, as of now, most major exchanges are still holding strong in their stance to do business with Russians though crypto-ruble trading pairs are highly limited and dwindling in liquidity.

All right so enough about the daily news, on to the giveaway.

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Giveaway Prize

Winner's Choice from the below cards.

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BONUS
If we can meet a designated number of upvotes I'll instead replace the winner's choice with one of the Chaos Legion Rare reward cards.

We unfortunately missed last weeks goal of 80 votes for a bonus draw so we will shoot for 75 this week.

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How to participate

  1. Leave a comment including the Splinterlands name the reward should be sent to and your response to the below prompt.
  2. Upvotes are not required but are appreciated
  3. Reblogs not required but are appreciated
  4. Spread positivity in your life.

*Prompt: In your opinion, why, or why not, is crypto a viable workaround to Russian sanctions?

I will be using Hive Picker to select a winner which will be announced in my next giveaway post.

Previous Post's Winner

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Note that I drew 5 names prior to these that didn't respond to the prompt.

Please let me know via a tag in the comments if you would no longer like to be notified of future giveaways.

Congrats to the winner!

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48 comments
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While i agree, that russians can for sure bypass restrictions using cryptocurrency, at the same time the Ukrainian civilians can save their savings using cryptocurrency and the government can collect donations for the people and also warfare.

For those, who are interested in the topic:
https://peakd.com/hive-167922/@noctury/overview-over-various-cryptocurrency-donations-to-the-ukraine-ende

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oh for sure, there has been millions of $ worth of crypto donated to the Ukraine, these are easily some of the most major positives that current US politicians are blatantly ignoring. Crypto is by far one of the easiest, not to mention cheapest, method for people to donate from across the globe.

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Thank you for your witness vote!
Have a !BEER on me!
To Opt-Out of my witness beer program just comment !STOP below

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(Edited)

I dont think crypto can help them much bypass sanctions, if Ruble has no value then you wont buy much crypto, also cryptos are not really accepted by financial world, would be Better to buy gold

Pelacor mercenary

@davideownzall

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This is a viewpoint I think that is also misinterpretted by politicians. Its not like many businesses are setup to pay for Russian goods and services in crypto either. Can you imagine a foreign to Russia food vendor buying Russian crops in BTC?

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Besides of this, foreign countries dont allow either their own conpanies to make affairs with russians, there are a lot of industries in Italy Who Lost much Money cause they got forbidden to buy/sell with russians by EU

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I think this is the design of crypto itself, it lends itself for this workaround of traditional systems. Does it move us closer to a worldwide currency, only time will tell on that one! DeFi works well in some cases, as long as they truly remain decentralized then it will make the difference in this instance, some of the crypto coins are controlled by the whales, depending upon how they behave, will make the difference.
ign @kqaos
Water splinter for both :)
Thank you for the opportunity! !PIZZA

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Count me in for the giveaway!

I do think that Cryptos COULD be a way to bypass sanctions in the future, but not right now. The crypto market isn't liquid enough to be relevant in geopolitical terms. A single person (including the ultra-rich oligargs) can bypass sanctions, yes; but a whole country can't bypass sanctions through crypto. We don't have liquidity enough to pay for an oil supertanker...

IGN @luizeba

!Gif money

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The purpose of Crypto from the start is deregulation so yes it can be a workaround for sanctions. This should be a good thing in the global economy overall even if it is not being for the good of all right now.
Hoping this pushes up the overall crypto market and we all become wealthier.

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Yeah, its an interesting test for sure. If we see the Russian population adopt crypto more due to the fact that their current financial system is in shambles it could potentially drive something like BTC or LTC into world currency status.

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I think it is a viable workaround but I fear if that's how it's used my government in the US will crack down on crypto which would suck.

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The US is absolutely looking to crack down on crypto but if Russian citizens are indeed able to bypass international sanctions via crypto I think that would be the use case proof that crypto is resilient to government regulation.

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Pelador mercenary - Venari wavesmith @amaillo
They can help for sure, but i don't think that be a definitive solution because not all people use cryptos...

!Gif dancingpotato

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*Prompt: In your opinion, why, or why not, is crypto a viable workaround to Russian sanctions?

Yes but Russians would need to be able to get their fiat to trade for crypto which might not be possible.

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Yes this could be difficult on two fronts

  1. Ruble/Crypto pairs have very minimal liquidity which means the amount of exchanges that can be done is limited.
  2. Various exchanges in themselves could opt to follow international sanctions and refuse to do business with Russians. So far this point seems to not be an issue.
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Pelacor Bandit or Venari Wavesmith

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!hivebits

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To be honest yes Crypto can bypass the sanctions, but I really dislike what Russia is doing now

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Cryptos can help them to bypass sanctions. Don't need to use SWIFT.

Pelacor mercenary

@henruc

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Pelacor Bandit.
Crypto can be a solution, but there are lots of people who are not familiar with using smartphones or even PC, so learning how to use crypto will take time
@irisworld

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Yes I think you are right. I am sometimes ignorant of reality in some parts of the world. Even the concept of the internet can be relatively challenging in isolated rural parts.

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Not too sure, though am more inclined to think yes because it is not subject to sanctions or freezing currently? @relf87

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Pelacor mercenary
Crypto is a bit of a sanction workaround but not that much for the average Russian person. I can of course see more governments using it as an excuse for more crypto crackdowns, but the donations to Ukraine show the power of crypto now for the ordinary person.

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Pelacor bandit or venari wavesmith please, @flummi97
I think cryptos could help, because don't care about these sanctions..

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I'm afraid the exchanges that support Russia will also be sanctioned
random card

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Yeah, this is the play I'm curious to see unfold. The major exchanges, some based in the US, have already vowed to continue service to Russia. The US gov can make their lives hell. Lets see what happens.

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Pelador mercenary

!LUV
!hivebits
!BEER

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Given the current emission rate of LUV pushing 500/day, increases to required LUV levels will likely be forthcoming.

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I say we send in a few Gargoya Devil's and end the whole thing quickly ;-)
@braaiboy

!BEER
!WINE

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@oliviander

I'm not convinced that crypto will be a solution for sanctions, it certainty won't be perfect. Crypto is still much too complex for many people and high fees and lack of protections can be costly for users. It's also not entirely impossible to trace as the US has demonstrated with locating and seizing crypto that was stolen or used for ransoms. With every transaction being public, crypto can be traced and captured at on/off ramps. Governments around the world are assuredly monitoring crypto activity such as which IP addresses transactions are coming from and probably even running their own nodes for various chains. The downside to anonymity is that we don't know how involved governments are. They could be running(or monitoring) nodes, mining pools, etc and capturing lots of data already. I expect that attempts by the Russian government to use crypto will be restricted but individuals who aren't worth going after should be fine.

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