Today's news: In Moscow, US dollars (USD) sell for 27-30 Russian roubels (RUR) (the inter-bank exchange rate being about 26). Dollar-denominated webmoney (WMZ) sells for 32-34 roubels. Both exchange rates are valid for exchange booths in the streets, for transactions under $500.

This, I guess, is partly due to the higher overhead costs of truning roubel cash into WMZ, but it may also mean that WMZ is more useful than USD for general consumers. The days when shops would sell their stuff for dollars are long gone, but almost all on-line stores accept WMZ; it is actually the most popular flavor of webmoney.

So, WMZ has a premium of 4-5 roubles, which works out as around 12%. That's pretty high.

It's possible to consider this as a demand premium, in that there is 12% cost base that consumers are prepared to pay to get a decent payment solution. It's indicative, though, and hard to rely upon.

We saw this with e-gold, in that many businesses make a market from around 2% to 15% premium, depending on which sector they are dealing with.