Rostec, a Russian state-owned firm, has developed a blockchain-based platform to enable international settlements between Russia and its partners, as well as the storage of digital currencies.
“A digital payment system based on a blockchain platform can be used as a full-fledged replacement of SWIFT, providing high speed, secure, and irrevocable transactions,” says Rostec Executive Director Oleg Yevtushenko. According to RBC Crypto, he added that CELLS will allow for settlements in national currencies, eliminating the risk of sanctions and ensuring the independence of Russia’s national financial policy in terms of clearing.
CELLS will be the new alternative to the global payment messaging system SWIFT, from which a number of Russian banks have been disconnected as part of Western sanctions.
Because of the recent invasion of Ukraine, Russia has become disconnected from global finance, foreign currency reserves, and traditional payment channels. In its trade deals, the Russian government has been trying to transition to payments in national currencies such as the ruble and the yuan, and it is also considering the use of cryptocurrencies for international settlements. This comes as Russia’s largest companies and importers struggle to make US dollar payments.
What is CELLS?
The Novosibirsk Institute of Program Systems created CELLS (NIPS). According to the report, its developers aimed to create a full ecosystem of software products and services based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) that enables international payments, multi currency transactions, user identification, and digital currency storage.
The system is expected to process up to 100,000 transactions per second, with the ability to scale up in the future. Based on CELLS, the creators intend to implement a data storage system, a platform for developing web applications, a “digital passport” service, a “digital housing and communal services” system, and other solutions.
