Russia's Sberbank Launches Blockchain on Hyperledger, Mulls Stablecoin in 2021

Aug 6, 2020 at 14:16 UTC.Sberbank, Russia's biggest consumer bank, is launching a blockchain platform built on Hyperledger Fabric, potentially with its own stablecoin.

The blockchain system is designed for trade finance transactions, including exchanging letters of credit, the bank's press representative told CoinDesk Thursday.

Anatoly Popov, Sberbank's deputy chair, told the Russian newspaper Vedomosti on Wednesday that the the bank is also planning to launch its own stablecoin pegged to the price of the ruble that could be used to buy digital assets.

Sberbank's press office told CoinDesk there is no concrete plan for the stablecoin yet.

Russian president Vladimir Putin signed the first of two bills on digital assets into law on July 31.A stablecoin would be a logical component of the blockchain platform for faster payments and settlements, which Sberbank is planning to launch during Q3.The system is built on Hyperledger's Fabric blockchain framework, with nodes hosted in Sberbank's own cloud computing service, SberCloud.

"Any company will be able to use smart contracts created by Sberbank right away or create their own," Popov told CoinDesk through the press representative.

Sberbank is planning to put a number of its existing services on its blockchain as well.

Sberbank currently holds about 43% of individual savings deposits in Russia and is a major shareholder in several big electronic payment, online retail and delivery companies.

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