Prospects of issuing digital ruble and its functioning in the country’s payment turnover

The relevance of the study is due to drastic changes in the attitude of Central banks in different countries to digital currencies. The prospects of issuing digital ruble by the Bank of Russia and its functioning in the country’s payment turnover are investigated. The study uses an integration approach based on interdisciplinary integration of knowledge. The authors adopted the paradigm of evolutionary economics in combination with syncretic logic of thinking as more general in comparison with metaphysics and dialectics, and the theory of carriers in the form of a new philosophical system of worldview. The provisions of the theory of information economy, semiotics, fractal geometry, and econophysics are used. Foreign experience of launching and testing digital currencies were studied. The author proposed an interpretation of the concept of the digital ruble as a type of electronic money in a broad sense. The article provides a justification for assigning digital currencies to a separate type of electronic form of money, and not to an independent form of money on a par with cash and non-cash. Taking into account the classification of the electronic form of money already established in Russian theory and practice in two main directions (based on cards and networks), it is proposed to supplement this classification with another direction based on a distributed register of digital transactions, which should include digital currencies. The paper outlines the reasons why the author questions the necessity and expediency of using the digital ruble in offline mode in addition to online mode both at the stage of its creation and in the long-term perspective. The author presents the rationale for and feasibility of a phased introduction of the digital ruble within the framework of the national payment system. The individual segments of the subjects of monetary relations should be involved in its application in the following sequence: in the first stage, capital and financial innovation markets; in the second stage, the government payments sector; in the third stage, the business segment; in the fourth stage, the population. The author of the article hopes to continue participating in the Bank of Russia’s “Digital ruble” project as an independent researcher and expert.