“The digital form does not imply any physical form, you and I will have all three forms – cash, non-cash in bank accounts and non-cash digital rubles on the Central Bank’s platform. So citizens do not need to buy anything, moreover – even try to look for it,” the official said.
If anyone is going to offer physical digital rubles, they are “clearly scammers and frauds”.
“If citizens really want to try digital ruble transactions, they should contact the banks where they are served,” the Central Bank’s deputy chairwoman explained.
Olga Skorobogatova says that pilot transactions with digital rubles will be launched as early as August 15. 600 people in 11 Russian cities will take part in the digital ruble trials.
The law on introducing the digital ruble into the banking system was passed recently. The Central Bank of the Russian Federation, which is assigned the status of the CBDC platform operator, now has the right to refuse any commercial bank to conduct a transaction. Several major banks have recently announced that they are willing to test real-world transactions with the government’s digital currency.