Russia is picking up the pace in the race to implement its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital ruble. The country’s monetary entity announced, this Tuesday, June 29, that it has already selected the banks that will participate in the first tests to be carried out in January 2022.
The Russian Central Bank chose up to 12 local banks which will be incorporated into its new digital platform for handling transactions with the digital ruble . The institutions that applied and received the go-ahead are: Ak Bars, Alfa Bank, Bank DOM.RF, VTB Bank, Gazprombank, Tinkoff Bank, Promsvyazbank, Rosbank, Sberbank, SKB-Bank, SOYS Bank and TKB Bank.
«The digital ruble is a project to create a new infrastructure to increase accessibility, reduce the cost of payments and transfers for citizens and businesses. To make it easier to use, it is necessary to ensure a seamless transition from one ruble form to another, “explained Olga Skorobogatova, First Vice President of the Central Bank of Russia.
The estimates of the Central Bank are that, by December 2021, the new systems will be ready, although it is not clear if the developments will be based on a blockchain . If Russia decides to follow in the footsteps of other CBDC projects such as those in China or the Bahamas, then it would not implement a distributed ledger, but instead would use a centralized database held by the monetary authority.
According to the financial institution, in January of next year the digital ruble will begin to be issued, in test mode, and then other entities will be incorporated for the evaluations.
In the case of commercial banks, these would act as intermediaries between the Central Bank and users to, for example, open wallets to customers of the central bank’s digital currency. In other words, under this model, commercial banks would continue to operate as trusted third parties.
Russia has been talking about the digital ruble for four years
The Russian government and other institutions such as the local parliament have spoken, at least since 2017, of issuing some type of national cryptocurrency. CriptoNoticias reported, in November 2018, that legislators were analyzing the possibility of proposing a project for a stable digital currency or stablecoin anchored 1: 1 with the ruble.
The proposal would be tied to the need for reduce dependence on the United States dollar , boost the national economy and have free trade with its partners on a global scale. Other aspects that could be influencing the momentum that Russia is giving to its project is the China issue and the rise of bitcoin.
The Asian giant has completed multiple tests with the so-called digital yuan. Millions of users have already bought products and paid for services in dozens of establishments as part of the evaluations made by the local central bank.
