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What happens when governments get into cryptocurrency.
Russia is working on a government-run cryptocurrency. And they're not alone. 

Governments around the world — including the U.S., China, Japan, Canada, Venezuela, Estonia, Sweden, and Uruguay — are either actively working on some form of digital currency or exploring the topic. 

But don't expect a bunch of bitcoin clones. Governments have very different priorities, and decentralization — a main feature of most cryptocurrenices including bitcoin — doesn't tend to be one of them. In fact, government digital currencies could herald a new era of centralization, posing serious questions about privacy and the viability of true cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. 

There's important differences between true cryptocurrencies and what are generally called "centralized digital currencies" (CDCs). One of the main qualities — if not the central feature — of cryptocurrencies is that they're decentralized. This means no single person, government, company, or group can control them. CDCs, on the other hand, are on the opposite end of the spectrum. They are as centralized as can be.