The Central Bank announced the start date for testing the digital ruble on real clients

The financial regulator is also preparing to use an additional form of Russian currency in the pilot.smart contracts.

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The Central Bank plans to start testing the digital ruble inreal operations and on bank customers in April 2023, Olga Skorobogatova, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, said at a meeting of the Bank of Russia with credit institutions. According to her, also in April next year, the regulator wants to try to use smart contracts in the pilot of the digital ruble.

According to Skorobogatova, earlier the pilot project for the digital ruble on real clients was supposed to be launched from 2024, but now it has been decided to postpone the deadline by a year.

“Seeing the pace at which we are going, most ofpilot banks with us are still in testing for test operations, we assume that from April next year we can start a pilot on real clients and on real operations,” Skorobogatova said.

On the plans of the Central Bank next year to hold the firstreal calculations in digital rubles were previously said by the head of the financial regulator Elvira Nabiullina. She added that the digital ruble will reduce the cost of settlements. Also, according to Nabiullina, it will be used in international payments. The head of the Central Bank stressed that Russia is "not at all in the last ranks" in creating its own digital currency.

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