The Bank of Russia is ready to start a digital ruble pilot program – Bits Media

Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia Olga Skorobogatova announced, that testing of the state digital currency will begin in January 2022 of the year.

First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation Olga Skorobogatova
reported, that development has been completed prototype platform for state digital currency. Pilot tests of the Central Bank's digital currency are scheduled to begin 2022 of the year. Skorobogatova clarified, that the first stage of testing will begin in the first working days of January.

“The prototype of the digital ruble platform is ready. Immediately after the January holidays, we begin piloting the first stage of operations with 12 banks".

At the same time, the deputy chairman of the Central Bank did not specify, which banks will take part in testing the state digital currency. Probably, will participate in the pilot project 12 Russian banks, who expressed a desire to take part in testing the digital currency of the Central Bank of Russia. The list included: "Ak Bars", "Alfa-Bank", "Dom.RF", VTB, Gazprombank, "Tinkoff", Promsvyazbank, Rosbank, Sber, SKB-Bank, "Soyuz" and Transcapitalbank.

In November, the Head of the Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, already said, that testing of the digital ruble will begin in January and will last until the end 2022 of the year. During this year, the regulator will make a final decision on the feasibility of issuing a national digital currency.. At the same time, the State Duma of the Russian Federation fears the risks of introducing a digital ruble. Parliamentary committees believe, that banks and information security of the country will suffer from the implementation of the state digital currency. Recall, that according to the Atlantic Council's Center for Geoeconomics, Russia belongs to the countries, who are “stuck” at the stage of researching a state digital currency.