But the war being carried out with military hardware seems to have found a strong match in technologies that intend to facilitate a sensible and organized world order. For example, Russia seems to have been rattled by the financial sanctions that have come from the US and its allies including most of Europe. In a major blow to Russia’s ability to carry out business with the rest of the world, the US-Europe block has sanctioned four of Russia’s largest banks that together hold $1.5 trillion in assets.

These banks have been cut off from SWIFT, a payment system that enables international transactions. It means Russian banks can’t access even their own funds outside the country and the Russian citizens are barred from sending or receiving money involving another country. In today’s globalized world, this is an entirely unimaginable situation. And, Russia seems to be rattled by this fallout, making 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin hold out the nuke threat.

Well, had Russia not foreseen this eventuality? Had it not prepared to overcome financial isolation of this nature and scale?

There have been reports that Russia can bypass the sanctions and continue with the business virtually as usual by using cryptocurrencies. Is it possible?

Let us look at an interesting alternative that Russia has. It’s called CIPS (Cross-Border Interbank Payments System). It’s a Chinese international payments system, first revealed in 2015. It is also called China Interbank Payment System and 23 of Russia’s banks are connected with this system, which is further connected to SWIFT.

Now, whether China will allow Russian banks to use CIPS or not is not clear in view of China’s inconsistent stand on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On the one hand, China wants Russia to shed a cold-war mentality and respect the sovereignty of an independent country on the other hand it has abstained from voting on a UN move to call Russia an aggressor and invader.

Now, the possibility of cryptocurrencies being used by Russia to bypass international sanctions comes into the picture.

There are two interesting and conflicting aspects at play when cryptocurrencies are being considered. First, cryptocurrencies use a distributed network to authenticate transactions, meaning there can be no discrimination as to who can or can’t participate. It means anyone can participate including Russian banks, firms, and individuals who today stand cut off from the mainstream international payments and financial systems. The second aspect of cryptocurrency goes against this very notion. Despite the power to govern a blockchain network distributed among members across the world, these networks are increasingly facing regulatory heat. The group of members who hold the voting rights to change the rules and protocols of a network is neither non-partisan nor immune to pressure from regulators. If Russia takes to cryptocurrencies to bypass the international sanction, cryptocurrencies are going to face further control and surveillance from the regulators. So, while cryptocurrencies, in principle, come across as a solution to Russia’s financial isolation, they can’t be relied upon by a nation facing a belligerent environment.

On Friday, a mining pool considered to be one of the largest for the Ethereum network stopped servicing Russian members. NFT and Metaverse platform DMarket has stopped access to Russian and Belarusian users.

By far, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of the world’s second most important cryptocurrency and perhaps the most important blockchain network Ethereum, a Russian-born Canadian citizen, has denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Digital coin TRON’s founder Justin Sun has announced $200,000 in Tether stablecoin to a crypto fund set up by the sympathizers of Ukraine and has swelled to $13 million by now. The crypto fund is meant to be used by Ukraine’s military. Many mainstream crowdfunding platforms have declined fund-collection initiatives on behalf of Ukraine.

Realizing the importance of cryptocurrencies at a difficult time like now, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has appealed to crypto exchanges to freeze access to Russian and Belarusian citizens and politicians. He has also called on Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg to stop their Mars and Metaverse plans and instead support Ukraine.

But to this columnist, the specter of nuclear war and Putin at the center of this entire drama has an uncanny familiarity to the following lines of T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock:

And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair —
(They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”)
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin —
(They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”)
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. (IPA Service)