Russians to conduct test operations with digital ruble
Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2025 8:43 am
This was announced at a press conference at TASS by Olga Skorobogatova, First Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia: "At the first stage, the pilot participants will practice basic operations: opening and replenishing accounts (digital wallets); transferring digital rubles between citizens; paying for purchases and services using a QR code."
By the end of 2023, the number israel whatsapp resource of pilot participants will increase from individuals to legal entities. At the second stage, every citizen who is a client of any of the 13 banks will be able to apply to participate in the pilot. The list of participating banks at the first stage includes Alfa-Bank JSC, Bank Dom.rf JSC, Ingosstrakh Bank JSC, VTB Bank PJSC, Gazprombank JSC, Qiwi Bank JSC, Ak Bars Bank PJSC, MTS Bank PJSC, Promsvyazbank PJSC, Sovcombank PJSC, Bank Sinara PJSC, Rosbank PJSC, and TKB Bank PJSC.
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With the start of testing the digital ruble in August 2023, Russians will be able to create a digital wallet in one of the 13 partner banks of the Central Bank and transfer up to 300 thousand rubles to it. In the future, the Central Bank wants to use the platform it created to convert the digital ruble into the digital yuan.
Olga Skorobogatova spoke about the main points of the pilot project: "The digital ruble is the third form of national currency. It will be in circulation in addition to cash and non-cash money. The project is a logical continuation of other projects of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation on innovative payment services and the creation of national infrastructures. The digital ruble takes us to a new level in terms of payment technologies in the country as a whole and makes it possible to build cross-border payments with other countries that also issue digital currencies. The pilot will begin on August 15. The number of clients at the first stage is limited. We did this intentionally, as we want to test all the intricacies of the client path, the chain of interaction between the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and back, and also understand how satisfied individuals and legal entities are with payments by the new digital means. After that, we will be ready to expand the list of participants. 13 banks have already agreed to participate in the first stage. Another 16 are ready to join next year."
Deputy President - Chairman of the Management Board of PJSC VTB Bank Vadim Kulik spoke about the advantages of smart contracts. "As part of the pilot, we are testing a limited number of products so far. However, the digital ruble is basically a line of code. And algorithms can be built into this code, they are called smart contracts. They can be used in various services. Corporate clients can build algorithms when paying and giving money to subsidiaries so that they are disclosed under certain conditions. For example, for salary payments. That is, money can be made targeted. Algorithms can be created both for all subsidiaries and for a specific legal entity. These processes are becoming cheaper for the banking sector, because all operations are performed by a machine, not people," explained Vadim Kulik.
"We hope that entering the digital currency is a big shift in global payments. When digital currency platforms of different countries integrate with each other, settlements will start working, bypassing the old infrastructure, such as SWIFT. That is, a new era will come in a decentralized form, where there will be no monopolists or central cores that will dictate the terms. We are now moving in this direction. Those who go first will get two advantages: first, they will see new opportunities and try to implement them for clients; second, the opportunity to offer the Central Bank of the Russian Federation something to add, increase, offer a new number of smart contracts within the pilot. Therefore, we want to take maximum advantage of the first," added Vadim Kulik.
By the end of 2023, the number israel whatsapp resource of pilot participants will increase from individuals to legal entities. At the second stage, every citizen who is a client of any of the 13 banks will be able to apply to participate in the pilot. The list of participating banks at the first stage includes Alfa-Bank JSC, Bank Dom.rf JSC, Ingosstrakh Bank JSC, VTB Bank PJSC, Gazprombank JSC, Qiwi Bank JSC, Ak Bars Bank PJSC, MTS Bank PJSC, Promsvyazbank PJSC, Sovcombank PJSC, Bank Sinara PJSC, Rosbank PJSC, and TKB Bank PJSC.
Read also
With the start of testing the digital ruble in August 2023, Russians will be able to create a digital wallet in one of the 13 partner banks of the Central Bank and transfer up to 300 thousand rubles to it. In the future, the Central Bank wants to use the platform it created to convert the digital ruble into the digital yuan.
Olga Skorobogatova spoke about the main points of the pilot project: "The digital ruble is the third form of national currency. It will be in circulation in addition to cash and non-cash money. The project is a logical continuation of other projects of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation on innovative payment services and the creation of national infrastructures. The digital ruble takes us to a new level in terms of payment technologies in the country as a whole and makes it possible to build cross-border payments with other countries that also issue digital currencies. The pilot will begin on August 15. The number of clients at the first stage is limited. We did this intentionally, as we want to test all the intricacies of the client path, the chain of interaction between the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and back, and also understand how satisfied individuals and legal entities are with payments by the new digital means. After that, we will be ready to expand the list of participants. 13 banks have already agreed to participate in the first stage. Another 16 are ready to join next year."
Deputy President - Chairman of the Management Board of PJSC VTB Bank Vadim Kulik spoke about the advantages of smart contracts. "As part of the pilot, we are testing a limited number of products so far. However, the digital ruble is basically a line of code. And algorithms can be built into this code, they are called smart contracts. They can be used in various services. Corporate clients can build algorithms when paying and giving money to subsidiaries so that they are disclosed under certain conditions. For example, for salary payments. That is, money can be made targeted. Algorithms can be created both for all subsidiaries and for a specific legal entity. These processes are becoming cheaper for the banking sector, because all operations are performed by a machine, not people," explained Vadim Kulik.
"We hope that entering the digital currency is a big shift in global payments. When digital currency platforms of different countries integrate with each other, settlements will start working, bypassing the old infrastructure, such as SWIFT. That is, a new era will come in a decentralized form, where there will be no monopolists or central cores that will dictate the terms. We are now moving in this direction. Those who go first will get two advantages: first, they will see new opportunities and try to implement them for clients; second, the opportunity to offer the Central Bank of the Russian Federation something to add, increase, offer a new number of smart contracts within the pilot. Therefore, we want to take maximum advantage of the first," added Vadim Kulik.