Earlier this week Sberbank, Russia’s national savings bank, announced its participation in the non-commercial alliance Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA). The bank is the first Russian bank to become a member of the alliance.
EEA was established in February 2017 to “connect Fortune 500 enterprises, startups, academics, and technology vendors with Ethereum subject matter experts.” Some 200 organizations have joined the association to date, including major international corporations — from BP, to Crédit Suisse, to JPMorgan, to Intel and Microsoft — universities, and the government of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
In 2015, Sberbank publicly stated its intent to join another international blockchain consortium, led by New York startup R3, to develop blockchain solutions in the bank industry. However, earlier this year, R3 refused Sberbank’s membership to the consortium due to the international sanctions against Russia, as reported by the Russian media.
In Russia, Sberbank is part of a consortium of leading Russian banks which is developing a distributed ledger dubbed Masterchain. This ledger uses a modified ethereum protocol while complying with national security standards, according to the country’s central bank-backed FinTech Association.
