MOSCOW, January 13 (RAPSI) - The Russian Federal Service for Consumer Rights Protection has blocked access to a website on bitcoin, a virtual currency. The URL bitcoin.org was included in the registry of banned websites by court order this Tuesday, TASS reports.

According to the agency, the decision to blacklist the website was made by the court back on September 30, 2014. The website is currently unavailable for users of several network providers.

The consumer protection watchdog has not commented on the order yet.

The website describes the advantages of bitcoin and how to use the virtual currency, as well as provides links to related communities.

Earlier, the Russian Finance Ministry proposed banning virtual currency transactions and imposing fines for violators. Financial experts repeatedly said that the state cannot control the circulation of this kind of currency.

Bitcoin is a decentralized virtual currency, created by computer users worldwide through a complex programming procedure called mining. Bitcoin’s status varies from acceptance to restriction as some governments are concerned about risks involved in bitcoin use.