Russian blockchain alternative to SWIFT to prevent disconnection of nations, banks – Finance Bitcoin News

A Russian university is ready to test its blockchain-based analogue of the global payment messaging network SWIFT, from which Russian banks were cut off as part of Western sanctions. The developers say that their system will not allow disconnection of land and banks.

Russian developers create SWIFT replacement using blockchain

Experts from the Competence Center of the National Technology Initiative at St. Petersburg State University in Russia announced that they are preparing to try out a new interbank payment system, an alternative to SWIFT. The latter is now unavailable to major Russian banks as a result of economic restrictions imposed on Moscow’s decision to invade Ukraine.

“The pilot version of the decentralized interbank financial messaging system is ready for testing and can be used in banks,” the university said in a statement. The people behind the project, which specializes in distributed ledgers, have used blockchain technologies to create the platform.

The center’s technical director Alexander Kireev said that preliminary tests showed good results. Transmission speeds currently exceed 25,000 messages per second on a single node and network capacity may increase in the future.

Quoted by the Russian cryptocurrency news outlet Bits.media, the university elaborates that the platform can scale up and integrate new financial organizations. Its representatives also stressed that it would be impossible to disconnect from any participating state or banking institution, as each client will have the same rights and access as everyone else.

Using a distributed ledger to exchange cross-border financial messages provides secure and reliable transactions, the development team pointed out. Their is the second blockchain-based project to replace SWIFT in Russia after state-owned technology giant Rostec announced a similar platform in June, designed to facilitate international settlements between Russia and its partners.

Russia also has its more traditional equivalent to SWIFT, the System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS), which was launched amid similar tensions following the annexation of Crimea in 2014. According to the report, around 70 organizations from a dozen countries are already connected to SPFS. Rostec’s CELLS platform is also intended to enable international payments and transactions in multiple currencies, as well as digital currency storage.

In the midst of ongoing military intervention in Ukraine, the Russian Federation is increasingly cut off from the global financial system, including foreign exchange reserves. In response, Moscow has tried to switch to payments in national currencies with its trading partners, while also considering the possibility of using cryptocurrencies for international settlements.

Do you expect Russia to implement a blockchain-based alternative to SWIFT? Tell us in the comments section below.

Lubomir Tassev

Lubomir Tassev is a technology expert from Eastern Europe who likes Hitchens’ quote: “Being a writer is what I am, rather than what I do.” In addition to crypto, blockchain and fintech, international politics and economics are two other sources of inspiration.