Russia develops blockchain payments system to replace SWIFT

Russia’s Rostec Group, a government organization, has developed a blockchain platform to launch a digital system for international payments capable of replacing the global SWIFT system.

Russian banks were excluded from the SWIFT system last February thanks to sanctions imposed by Western countries in response to the Russian-Ukrainian war. Since then, Moscow has been trying to search for an alternative financial payment system to SWIFT to protect its foreign trade transactions.

The digital system of international payments will allow Russia to pay for its imports in its national currency, the Ruble, instead of the USD. The new system will also allow foreign countries to pay for their imports from Russia in their national currencies as well.

Rostec’s statement said that the blockchain platform on which the international payments system was developed, called CELLS, was developed by the Novosibirsk Institute of Software Systems (NIPS), which is in turn affiliated with the Rostec Group.

The platform is designed to be able to provide an integrated system based on distributed ledger technology. According to the Russian group, the platform includes among its central elements a digital system for making payments in the national currencies of the countries associated with it.