Sberbank sets out its blockchain strategy

Sberbank, the biggest bank in Russia, has been vocal about its support for blockchain and cryptocurrency going back a way.

Taking to the stage at the Global Blockchain Summit in Shanghai, Sberbank's senior managing director of technology, Pavel Khodalev showed off the bank's blockchain strategy going forward.

Khodalev said an important first step is the work being done with the Central Bank of Russia's interbank messaging system. Other innovations include an overhauled settlement depository and proxy voting implemented on a blockchain.

He added that various government agencies have been looking at blockchain and cryptocurrency, citing a centre of excellence for the technology which is now two years old.

Khodalev also mentioned a proof-of-concept for applying power-of-attorney for a bank account. He pointed out that in Russia this can be issued by a bank or a notary, which can lead to costly collisions, but which a blockchain can streamline. A pilot is underway and this will go live once a law change is finalised in the middle of next year, he added.

He said the Russian government is an advocate of blockchain; they listen carefully, whether about digital arbitrage courts or regulation friendly interbank direct messaging with the central bank, he said.

"Right now we have a chicken-and-egg situation because we lack standards. We hope to have this in place by the end of 2017 and expect the first enterprise solutions by 2019."

Also interesting is Amis, the Taiwanese blockchain platform, which also runs Maicoin, a digital asset trading platform. Amis told IBTimes UK exclusively that it will be the technology provider to seven Taiwan banks which are launching a consortium next month.

Alex Liu, chief executive, Amis and his team explained that the blockchain platform will look at various financial use cases and digital asset trading. Amis is also very proud of its IoT blockchain proof of concept aimed at the airline industry.

Currently, Fubon Bank is the only one of the new consortium to be named; the others will be made public next month.