Qiwi, a NASDAQ-listed Russian payment company, has created a subsidiary to develop Blockchain products, the Russian business daily Kommersant reported earlier this week.
The new company, dubbed ‘Qiwi Blockchain Technologies’ (QBT), will be headed by Alexey Arkhipov, who currently serves as director of crypto-technology development at Qiwi.
This year, Qiwi may invest some 100 million rubles (nearly $1.7 million at the current exchange rate) in such technologies, Kommersant learned from an unnamed source with knowledge of the matter.
QBT will develop and implement Blockchain technology for further integration into Qiwi’s operations. Thus a cryptoprocessing platform — using Blockchain to process payments — has already been tested and will be applied to Qiwi’s new products.
In addition, QBT will provide external customers with expertise and consulting services, according to the company.
“[Our clients will be able to] integrate Blockchain technology and start using it right away without even needing to understand how it actually works,” said Arkhipov.
For example, Blockchain technologies may be used to create shareholder registers, store data, or use the Bank of Russia’s Masterchain, adds Arkhipov.
“Changing the economy, business and daily life”
A few months ago, the Russian media reported QIWI’s plans to track energy transactions using Blockchain technology. The company partnered with Tavrida Electric, one of the world’s leading suppliers of circuit breakers and a global energy smart grid supplier. Under plans, each Tavrida Electric transaction is to be recorded on the Blockchain. The transactions will be visible to regulatory agencies and other energy companies on the Blockchain. Qiwi said it could extend the project to other energy companies.
Last year QIWI was among the initiators of a new consortium for joint exploration and project implementation in the field of Blockchain and related technologies. The consortium presented itself as “Russia’s first collaboration platform across innovative and distributed technologies.”
“Over the past two years, the attention to blockchain and its derivatives has intensified. Blockchain can effectively solve the long-standing technological problems in the financial sector and change all kinds of relationships between market players,” Sergey Solonin, CEO of QIWI Group, said at that time.
Such innovative technologies “can lead the economy, business and daily life of a person to a completely new level of interaction and confidence,” he believes.
