Russia has been one of the biggest international names to back the blockchain technology. The country’s government led by President Vladimir Putin has been one of the biggest names when it comes to regulating and legalizing cryptocurrencies for quite some time now. Russia’s Central Bank has now suggested the use of an Ethereum-based Blockchain which can be used a single system for pan-European payments.

Central Banking authorities of Russia have been quite liberal when it comes to blockchain based payments. The latest suggestion from the bank is of using Masterchain’s Ethereum blockchain technology, which has been developed by the FinTech association of Russia, for creating a single payments system for the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). 

The Central Bank’s First Deputy Chairman Olga Skorobogatova commented on Tuesday: "We are currently discussing the possibility of creating new technologies for transmitting messages and payments across the EAEU as a supranational infrastructure. It would enable us to use blockchain’s distributed ledger technologies within the EAEU’s space, settle payments and transmit financial information sidestepping current payment systems."

Russia has been making use of this Ethereum based system for quite some time now. It was tried out in 2016 and a successful, working version came out in 2017. "An active discussion is underway, and we are looking into several quality technologies, including Masterchain," said Olga. 

The Bank plans on first implementing this system of payments for transactions within the country and then to an international level. They are referring to it as a supernational infrastructure which will be a grander scheme than all individual national banking systems. 

Russia has been working aggressively to portray themselves as a crypto and blockchain friendly nation. The country, which will be home to the FIFA World Cup 2018 now has a number of major hotels accepting crypto payments. Moreover, the Russian President Vladimir Putin has been pushing for crypto-reforms in the nation, including a plan to legalizing cryptocurrencies in the nation by July. 

It would be interesting to see how this major push for the banking infrastructure plays out. So far, Ripple has been the leading name internationally when it comes to banking infrastructures. However, with Russia’s backing, Ethereum based systems too, may appear as a legitimate competition to Ripple’s dominance in this sector. Stay tuned with us for more updates on this story.