Russia is changing attitude towards blockchain

Russia is launching a pilot program based on blockchain technology. The Russian government has teamed up with the country’s largest bank by assets, Sberbank, and the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) for a project “Digital Ecosystem for Exchanging Documents”. They are designing an “electronic interaction model” using blockchain for storing and exchanging sensitive documents.

“The goal of the project is to study the possibilities of distributed document storage, which may increase the speed, reliability and quality of interaction during document exchange,” announced FAS in its statement.

Blockchain technology allows documents to be transferred instantly. More importantly, electronic signatures make them cryptographically unforgeable.

The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federations, has been expressing concerns about the implications of allowing cryptocurrency into its monetary system. The ministry officials have been working on a draft law that sees Bitcoin in its current form illegal in Russia and anyone involved in its use or engaged in cryptocurrency trade liable to prosecution, fines and a jail term.

The Russian government has now decided that it is necessary “to monitor the use of virtual currencies and analysis of risks of use of money surrogates for criminal activities.”

“This decentralizing approach cuts costs because data processing centers are not required and the requirements for equipment protection are lowered. It is noteworthy that Russia is one of the first countries in the world where the state and market participants are looking at these innovations as a way to simplify business operations,” commented deputy head of the FAS Russia Andrey Tsarikovskiy.