Russian internet giant Yandex shows interest on Bitcoin

Yandex, Russia’s largest search engine and Internet-based services provider, is interested to add bitcoin to its financial platform Yandex.Money, in order to enable its merchants to accept payments in the digital currency, Bitcoin Magazine reported.

“We are definitely paying close attention to cryptocurrencies,” the Yandex team told Bitcoin Magazine.

Maria Gracheva, CEO of Yandex.Money, announced at the Finnopolis FinTech Forum held in Kazan, that the company is looking forward to support bitcoin payments. Speaking to Bitcoin Magazine, Nora Kirkizh, media relations manager of Yandex.Money explained that bitcoin fits perfectly with the payment solutions offered by them.

“The technology on which they are based can be used as the foundation for lots of different products,” said Kirkizh. “For example, Yandex.Money offers online stores Yandex Payment Solution. With this service they can accept payments from customers via bank cards, e-wallets, online banking accounts and other possible payment methods. Currently, over 76,000 online stores use Yandex Payment Solution to process their payments. Indeed, bitcoin would fit this range of methods perfectly. If it was one of the options in Yandex Payment Solution, users could easily use it to pay for goods on any website.”

However, the legality of bitcoin in the country is still unclear. While the Russian Central Bank prohibits the use of bitcoin, Russian president Vladimir Putin said that the digital currency can perhaps be used in “some account.” The Yandex team, therefore, plans to wait until bitcoin gets approval from authorities and the government.

“Different institutions have different attitude to bitcoin. Russian Central Bank prohibited this currency in the country, for instance, although other organizations were interested in bitcoin and suggesting to know it better. We still do not know what bitcoin will be in the near future, and there is not an opportunity to work with it legally,” said Kirkizh. “Until cryptocurrencies are regulated by Russian law, we cannot work with them viably.”