Russia test blockchain payments

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Last week, officials including Kaliningrad governor Anton Alkikhanov and VEB chairman Sergei Gorkov, met at the Russian Investment Forum in Sochi to sign the agreement that underlies the trials. Alikhanov said in a statement that the competence of the development bank in the field of blockchain technology would help the western region of Russia to improve the quality of management decisions.

The regional government and its development bank partner partner are betting that the technology will improve the quality of social services by increasing transparency and reducing costs. Elements of the Russian government have previously attempted blockchain as part of research into potential applications in the public sector, but the VEB deal represented a significant combination of private and public interests.

They plan to cooperate in order to implement modern IT solutions to the region, namely "social payments" and "electronic services" based on blockchain, "to improve the efficiency of state and corporate governance."

Vnesheconombank has shown a steady interest in the technology of blockchain. In 2017, the bank unveiled a blockchain product strategy and a blockchain-focused research center, both aimed at improving knowledge of this technology, providing an environment for testing use cases.