Hot on the heels of JPMorgan's "web cash" developments in the virtual currency arena, the CEO of Russia largest bank - Sberbank - appears to be looking for alternatives...

*SBERBANK CEO GREF SAYS FUTURE BELONGS TO VIRTUAL CURRENCIES

*GREF SAYS DEVELOPMENT OF VIRTUAL CURRENCIES 'CAN'T BE STOPPED'

*SBERBANK CEO CALLS FOR GREATER REGULATION OF VIRTUAL CURRENCIES

*SBERBANK MAY FORM OWN VIRTUAL CURRENCY ON BASIS OF YANDEX MONEY

When a pseudonymous 'Japanese' coder creates a crypto-currency that gains acceptance among thousands of vendors, it's dismissed by the powers-that-be and called a ponzi scheme by the MSM. One wonders what happens when the largest banks of the US and Russia sanction the 'idea' of a decentralized, unregulated, 'money' transfer system.

Via Bloomberg,

“We are at a new stage of technological development. I can’t imagine how it can be stopped,” Sberbank CEO Herman Gref tells reporters in Moscow. Gref says virtual currencies need greater regulation “These experiments must end in one or two crashes” before virtual currencies become firmly established, Gref says Says Yandex Money isn’t “a currency but it’s a first step in that direction”

Of course, the difference is - the banks want to own it...