Russia’s largest bank Sberbank announces latest blockchain strategy

Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, has long supported blockchain and cryptocurrency.

Recently, the bank’s senior technical director Pavel Khodalev presented the latest developments in the institution’s blockchain strategy at the Shanghai Global Blockchain Summit.

Khodalev said that the Russian Central Bank has taken an important step in the interbank information system. In addition, Russia has also used blockchain technology to conduct a comprehensive review of settlement trusts and other innovations such as proxy voting.

Khodalev pointed out that blockchain technology has been developed for two years and government agencies in various countries have been studying blockchain and cryptocurrency technology.

Khodalev also mentioned a proof of concept for using power of attorney in bank accounts. He pointed out that in Russia this method can be issued by banks or notaries, but it can be expensive, but using blockchain technology can simplify it. If the legal changes are finalized by the middle of next year, this method may be put into use.

Khodalev said that the Russian government is an advocate of blockchain technology and is closely following the development of digital arbitration courts and regulations to properly regulate direct information exchanges between banks and the central bank.

"Right now, we are in a chicken-and-egg situation because of the lack of standards. We hope that the technology will be in place by the end of 2017 and that companies will be using it by 2019."

Amis, a Taiwanese blockchain platform that also operates the electronic asset trading platform Maicoin, said it plans to provide technical services to a blockchain alliance formed by seven Taiwanese banks next month.

Amis CEO Alex Liu and his team said the blockchain platform will focus on various financial services and electronic asset transactions. Amis is also very proud of its IoT blockchain proof-of-concept project for the aviation industry.

Currently, Fubon Bank is the only public bank in the Taiwan Banking Blockchain Alliance, and information on other banks will be announced next month.