Interesting things are happening in the |Russian digital currency ecosystem these days. Even though the country wants to ban Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, they are not opposed to digital currency by any means. While we may not see a BitRuble anytime soon, the government is working together with QIWI, a payment provider eyeing blockchain technology.
Most people will know the name QIWI as being a Russian payment company. This company quickly became the market leader when it comes to handling online payments in Russia. Due to tight regulatory requirements, there is little competition in Russia when it comes to ecommerce and other payments right now.
Despite that somewhat comfortable position, QIWI is showing a desire to innovate their company. To be more precise, the company is contemplating to move their current database over to the blockchain in the next five years. At this time, it is not known if the company will use a private or open blockchain standard to do so.
QIWI CTO Alexey Arkhipov told the media:
“An interim period would likely be needed to transition our older, centralized database out of use. We are also exploring the option where the two systems could operate side by side for as long as a year to avoid issues during this transition.”
This is a rather positive turn of events, albeit it is not entirely surprising either. Russian government officials, as well as the country’s central bank, are keen on exploring blockchain technology. While they may not want anything to do with cryptocurrency just yet, this is a move in the right direction to promote the technology.
Do keep in mind this is only an option being explored by QIWI for now, and nothing has been set in stone just yet. Even if they were to go ahead with this idea, it might take a few more years before the migration begins. The company strongly feels new technologies can only be deemed useful after testing it out for three years or more.
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