Belarus is building CBDC platform on Hyperledger Fabric

Belarus proceeds to develop a blockchain platform for its central bank digital currency (CBDC) . The country is under international sanctions, but Belarus hopes to use its digital ruble (Belarusian ruble) for cross-border transactions. 

According to the Ekonomicheskaya Gazeta, a local newspaper, the state-owned Center of Bank Technologies began building the CBDC platform in January and is now actively hiring developers. The platform will be built on the open-source Hyperledger Fabric blockchain.

The official website of the Center of Bank Technologies contains a job opening for backend developers with knowledge of Hyperledger Fabric and Linux and experience in creating smart contracts.

The news about the CBDC pilot, prepared by the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus, appeared in April 2023 . Back then, the chairman of the National Bank, Pavel Kallaur, revealed that the country would make the final decision “at the level of the head of the state” on the CBDC by the end of 2023.

Related: Japan to resolve CBDC issuance legalities by Q2 2024

In July 2023, the deputy chairman of the National Bank, Dmitriy Kalethichts, officially confirmed that the nation is going to implement the CBDC as a legal tender. He also emphasized that the “digital rouble” might be used in cross-border trade with Russia, which has been actively exploring its own CBDC , also called “digital rouble.”

In May 2023, the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, met with the chairman of the Central Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, to discuss the digital rouble in the framework of the potential single currency for both countries.

Meanwhile, since last year, the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been working on legal amendments prohibiting peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The authority cited a high cybercrime rate in Belarus and argued that crypto P2P services are “in demand among fraudsters who cash out and convert stolen funds and transfer money to organizers or participants in criminal schemes.”

Since the beginning of 2024, several countries announced their further movement toward exploring or implementing CBDCs , including Japan, Cambodia and UAE.

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