Russian Billionaire Vladamir Potanin Plans A Palladium Pegged Cryptocurrency Token

A crypto token used for trading Palladium is one of the several digital platforms proposed by Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin and his firm MMC Norilsk Nickel PJSC.

Palladium is a member of the platinum group of metals and is considered a white metal, which is a term used to describe alloys that are lighter in color. Palladium can resist chemical erosion and intense heat as well as being electrically stable. The metal is used in electronic components, jewelry, and surgical instruments.

MMC Norilsk Nickel is the world's largest producer of nickel(accounting for 17 percent of global production) and palladium (41 percent), and a top ten producer of copper. It is of no surprise that the efforts to make a Palladium-pegged crypto are coming from this company.

In a recent interview in Moscow, Potanin said:

“People more and more tend to use decentralized networks and platforms that don’t have a main operator. We want to be active participants of this process.”

Potanin is an active propagator of the idea that crypto tokens have to be backed by metals. Bloomberg explains this position by citing an example:

“If a customer finds it doesn’t need all its contracted volume, it would either have to enter potentially difficult negotiations with the supplier, or take delivery of the metal until it needs it or finds a buyer. But if the client has a digital contract denominated in tokens, it could more easily sell the unwanted volume to someone else.”

It’s just that transactions in tokens are simpler and more convenient. It’s not just talks. The Russian billionaire plans to launch the digital platform by the end f the year, provided he gets all the required approvals. Although things might not be east for Potanin as the law on digital financial assets is still not set in stone and the next hearing has been postponed till end of April.

Potanin added that the primary problem of the draft is that it says that digital platforms should be run by banks and exchanges only. This should be changed as these platforms are capable of doing a variety of things.

Another digital platform being developed by him and his team is a product for intellectual property where startups can pitch their ideas, even to industrial companies. BCH Digital Ventures have agreed to be a part of this venture.