VEB and FIPS are set to create blockchain-based projects

At the Skolkovo Open Innovations forum, Vnesheconombank and Russian Federal Institute of Industrial Property (FIPS) signed a cooperation agreement.

On the part of Vnesheconombank, the agreement was signed by Dmitry Kurdyukov, the Bank’s First Deputy Chairman - Member of the Management Board, and on the part of FIPS, it was signed by its chief executive Yury Zubov.

VEB and FIPS have selected the following key areas of cooperation:

• Training programmes to be created and carried out to train staff with a strong knowledge in the field of blockchain technology at the VEB Blockchain Competence Centre;
• Joint cross-industry pilot projects using the blockchain technology with FIPS as a project and technology expert and designer;
• Regular joint work meetings using the VEB Blockchain Competence Centre capabilities in order to work together to further develop the blockchain technology;
• Joint conferences, training and education events, hackathons and hackathon-style events, championships, project design competitions for the best blockchain-based solutions to be selected, including distributed ledger projects.

Mr. Zubov noted that “it was agreed that FIPS will act as provider of expertise, evaluation and analysis for supporting the programmes pursued by the VEB Blockchain Competence Centre. FIPS will also prepare the global research overview of distributed ledger patent rights and registration developments so that all the stakeholders get up-to-date insights about the sector. Furthermore, a high quality analysis will also be used to encourage government institution staff and Russian people to use more widely and know better about blockchain-based public services.

Also, FIPS is set to explore and analyse the patent- and patent-right-related practices, developments and implications in the quantum technology sector that is seen as a most crucial sector nationally in terms of developing research and technology in Russia.”

“VEB and FIPS have been developing a background of organizing applied research dealing with blockchain and computer science design application. Currently, we are discussing a joint pilot project for creating a consolidated blockchain-based national database of intellectual property rights. By introducing smart contracts, we will have the source of credible and adequate information about the nationally available realizable potential of research and development outcomes, so this information will be transparent and accessible to users and stakeholders. Today, VEB Group team of experts is implementing multiple trial projects and creating distributed ledger systems to enable registration of transactions and documents such as bank guarantees, letters of credit exchanged between banks in import transactions, co-investment agreements for construction projects. Yet today we can say that the blockchain technology transforms the conventional business process, reduces the oversight and control scopes and shortens the transaction timeframes. Very soon, due to blockchain technology, we will experience a whopping progress both socially and economically that will change people’s life in many ways”, commented Dmitry Kurdyukov.

Vnesheconombank is a leading development institution, and so a blockchain technology implementation engine launching pilot projects across the public sector. The Open Innovations 2017 forum was the first event for VEB, where the Bank exhibited the blockchain-based product prototypes for public services and forest conservation.

Russian Federal Institute of Industrial Property (FIPS) is a Russian government-financed federal-level institution that is a part of the Russian Federal Service for Intellectual Property (Rospatent). We are currently conducting the patent research to explore how blockchain technology and computer science markets can be effectively developed. A pilot project is now prepared to be launched to bring about the national consolidated distributed ledger of intellectual property rights. The potential customers for the solution are Russian state corporations who seek to get the patent-related data integrated and organized into a convenient system, and are interested in introducing ‘smart contracts’ for transparent R&D bidding.

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