Russian University Tests Blockchain Alternative To SWIFT

Experts from the Competence Center of the National Technology Initiative at the St Petersburg State University in Russia recently declared that they are preparing to trial a new interbank payment system, an alternative to SWIFT. The latter is now inaccessible for key Russian banks as a result of financial curtailments imposed over Moscow’s decision to invade Ukraine.

In a recent statement, the university mentioned,

“The pilot version of the decentralized interbank financial messaging system is ready for testing and can be used in banks.”

The individuals behind the project, specializing in the field of distributed ledgers, have employed blockchain technologies to constitute the platform.

The center’s technical director Alexander Kireev mentioned that preliminary testing demonstrated encouraging results. Presently, the transfer speeds exceed twenty five thousand messages per second at one node and the network’s capacity can be increased in the future.

Quoted by the Russian digital asset news outlet Bits.media, the university elaborated that the platform can scale up and integrate new financial organizations. Its representatives also accentuated that it would be nonviable to disconnect any participating state or banking institution as each client would have the same rights and access as any other.

In the middle of its ongoing military intervention in Ukraine, the Russian Federation is rapidly cut off from the worldwide financial system, including its foreign currency reserves. In response, Moscow has been attempting to transition to payments in national currencies with its trade partners while also taking into account the probability of using virtual assets for international settlements.