Russian consortium of banks together with the national Central Bank is testing a system of transactions based on the distributed ledger technology.
Sberbank, the biggest Russian bank by assets, has conducted a blockchain pilot transaction from one client to another under the supervision of the Central Bank, revealed Sberbank’s first deputy chairman Lev Khasis in an interview with TASS. He warned that bringing the system to real-life use will take more time.
“We know there have been examples when hasty implementation of the blockchain technology caused significant losses.”
Khasis is certain that within a few years blockchain will be used on an industrial scale.
According to Sberbank’s first deputy chairman, the main advantage of the distributed ledger is its ability to reduce the time and cost of transactions.
“Today, blockchain allows creating a more secure and less expensive system based on distributed processing and distributed storage. In this regard, the Central Bank acts as a driving force to fasten the introduction of new technologies.”
Khasis noted that the blockchain has a wide range of applications: it can be used for land registries, voting, etc. He emphasised that the technology would greatly facilitate the work of many state structures including the Ministry of Labour.
“In the 21st century in any advanced country of the world, a paper service record book should be but a museum item.”
Speaking about the timeframe of full-scale technology implementation, Khasis compared it to the Yuri Gagarin’s space flight, which took years of preparation after the initial experimental rocket launches.
Russian consortium aiming at research and development of blockchain technologies was established in summer 2016. The organisation works under the leadership of the Russian Central Bank. Among the members of the consortium are Qiwi, Accenture, BINbank, MDM Bank, Bank Otkritie and Tinkoff Bank.
Elena Platonova
