The Bitcoin industry in Russia is still uncertain about how the country’s regulatory authorities may react at any time to cryptocurrency usage. But the Russian government agencies seem to have understood the potential of Bitcoin’s underlying blockchain technology and are even working on it.
The country’s banking and financial sector has come together to create working groups and consortiums to develop and implement distributed ledger technology applications. The increasing interest in recent days is predicted to give rise to a blockchain wave, which will lead to widespread adoption of digital currency technology in the coming 2-3 years. The prediction was made recently by none other than Herman Gref, the head of Sberbank.
Gref made the statement while speaking at a conference on innovations in the real estate market. He was quoted by a Russian media outlet saying,
“The Prime Minister signed the order to establish a special working group headed by the First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov to explore the possibility of using blockchain technology… In my opinion, this is a huge step forward in terms of the utilization of this technology. It will affect virtually all industries.”
Sberbank officials responsible for the research and development of blockchain applications state that it is possible to start commercial operations using the technology within one and half years. However, Gref believes that to be an optimistic estimate which might get pushed further by at least another year. He said,
“…2-2.5 years is the horizon within which we can speak about the application of blockchain technology in commercial operation.”
Sberbank has been in the forefront of the blockchain revolution along with the likes of Qiwi, Accenture, B&N Bank, MDM Bank, Tinkoff Bank, etc. The banking major has been working closely with the Russian central bank to further the cause of blockchain technology within the country’s financial ecosystem.
Ref: 1prime.ru | Image: Shutterstock
