A group of Russian banks, payment firms and financial startups have completed an initial working version of their previously announced 'Masterchain' blockchain software.
Revealed exclusively to CoinDesk, the Association of FinTech – a group formed in January under governance of the Central Bank of Russia – completed the work at the end of May. Built using a fork of the ethereum blockchain, the software is now ready to be used in ongoing proofs-of-concept, according to those close to the effort.
But while built from the ethereum software, there is one key difference: Masterchain is built according to domestic cryptography standards.
In interview, Kirill Ivkushkin, the Sberbank representative in the association's distributed ledger working group, suggested that this step was necessary to ensure enterprise blockchain applications could seek wider use in Russia.
Read more on: https://www.coindesk.com/russian-central-bank-group-prepares-masterchain-ethereum-fork-testing/