I know that Ruble will be in a free fall, but cryptos are not stable either. So it's like buying Ruble, but with extra steps.
What ordinary people desperately need is assets they can hide from their government to preserve some wealth. However, because it is 2022, they also have the option of assets that literally nobody can take off them. It'd be worth a shot, maybe the legal situation will be different in 5-10 years and if they invest in a crypto they'll be able to trade it for something.
I like their odds in literally anything more than odds in the Russian rouble. So crypto would make sense.
Don’t oversell it: this is a government with advanced internet monitoring capabilities and little concern about civil liberties. Make one opsec mistake or transact with someone who does, show unexplained money, etc. and then it’s “turn over the key if you want to see your children out of prison”. Blockchains are exceptionally risky here because they require a lot of visible network activity and leave a full history of your activity for the authorities.
And they can skim off the top of all Russians at once. Even bitcoin is a pretty uncontestable step up - fiat currencies are bad for storing wealth at the best of times but this is really not the best of times. This is the time to flee a sinking ship.
I doubt that a government who pioneered cyberwarfare will be unable to locate your bitcoins; and once you do that, to acquire them they only need some goon with a monkeywrench - of which, I'm sure, there is no scarcity in Russia right now.
Otherwise there's exchanges which still operate within Russia for the time being and some business (tho too rare to be useful but In a big city, if you don't have funds others than what was sent to you, you might be able to buy more than otherwise) accept it though I wouldn't rely on that too much unless you know a specific one.
However, not everyone can receive or send rubles as easily to/from the west especially after the SWIFT and related bans. Either way, it doesn't hurt to have the extra option.
Where might I find one of these (near mythical) beasts?
https://www.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-atm/
I've been seeing them occasionally in big cities since 2014-15 though again it's never worth it at least for me - the exchange rate is typically pretty bad and I'd rather wait but go through a low fee/feeless option.
At some point the flow does have to exit to something that a corporation or ministry controls; so an exchange business will necessarily appear, even if it's extremely high risk; someone will be in a position to pull strings. It's not a stretch when you look at how countries with weak local currencies have been operating for decades, just usually with USD as the preferred trade currency instead.
Anyway, do you have a better way how to store wealth or savings in such situations? Crypto seems like a very good option.
I don't have a better way, but I'm just saying that crypto is also not a good way.
Russia is not a country of people living on the edge of starvation. They have savings and save up to buy houses like any middle class people.
So Russians might not be on the edge of starvation but I imagine that a substantial minority could find themselves close to that edge quite quickly.
0: https://www.valuepenguin.com/banking/average-savings-account...
And to your response, maybe instead disallowing all people crypto, let's make it easier for everyone. Times like this make it more clear than ever that crypto is not just a "solution looking for a problem".
LocalBitcoins is blocked, but there are still analogues (not with greatest rate, but anyway).
Russia <-> Crypto relationship is complicated and recently Central Bank proposed additional restrictions, but its not approved yet.
https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/russian-cbank-propo...
I suspect - but absent evidence this is speculation - that you can probably pay with gold and 'hard' currency easily right now in Russia, this was the case before the iron curtain fell (illegal, of course) and I don't see why it would be any different today. People hate being paid in a currency that loses double digit percentages of value overnight.
Also, if you want to arrange buying bitcoin (with rubles) in person with a stranger on the internet, and arrange physical meetup in some secluded spot in Moscow, then getting arrested might not be your only worry.
Have you tried taking more than 10k € across an airport?
And just because you normally can't move money to north Korea, if you do this with P2P you are equally breaking the law. Same for Iran and Venezuela I believe
That might be US law, but not all countries have such laws. It depends on where the exchange is based.
I don't agree with that statement.
(a) Russian stocks have crashed hard already, and if you believe war is already priced in, you could buy in low, sell high at a later date, and donate proceeds to Ukraine rebuilding efforts, effectively creating a Russia->Ukraine money funnel
(b) Putin might be a terrorist, but most Russian civilian businesses are most certainly not. Many of them don't support attacking Ukraine, as evidenced by the numerous protests in Russia, and likely a whole lot of other people that would protest but are afraid to. The way I see it, "Russia" isn't attacking Ukraine, a corrupt leader of Russia is.
Exchange oil for BTC.
Use obtained BTC to buy other commodities from willing partners (which - has to be said - there might not be many left).
Bypass traditional currencies entirely.
Edit: We've had to ask you this more than once before, and ban accounts that don't stop, so please stop. It's not what this site is for, and it destroys what it is for.
Edit: We've had to ask you this more than once before, and ban accounts that don't stop, so please stop. It's not what this site is for, and it destroys what it is for.
You might think that the central authority was right because the truckers were all 'crazy conspiracy people', but the underlying point remain : if you're in a line of politics that can get you on the wrong side of a central authority that can stop you, might be better to go for solutions that are less dependent on central authorities.
The same technology used by Ukraine donators is also used by terrorists, criminals and extremists. Maybe ask why they use it? Or even in the case for Signal, the same users who want privacy and want to chat securely and send MobileCoin to each other, the same extremists are doing just that on Signal and financing their criminal activities with MobileCoin to each other; with that being completely untraceable.
All these libertarian technologies can be used by anybody, including the 'crazy conspiracy people' which some of them once thought that mass-surveillance was happening to everyone vs those who said: 'If you have nothing to fear, you have nothing to hide'.
Those 'crazy conspiracy people' they speak of built those tools and it's a double-edged sword since anyone can use them.
Save - I'd not think it's not a popular instrument, and it's hard to buy lots of it. (Technically you can trade it as forex and the let the position open?). Hide - as in "cash under the blanket": 1) moving cash in the EU is regulated (ie 10k euro), and to do that they'd have to have an account in CHF send money (in any other currency to), and then withdraw in cash. I am not sure how many banks offer CHF accounts outside Switzerland.
Like middle class russia is waiting for at ms to run dry.
Such a bummer for everyone.
It reminds me of German civil servants who ran the numbers and advised Hitler that the country was going to lose. Recommendations are worthless when politicians ignore them and declare war anyway.
Source on this? Sounds interesting.