QIWI, a leading provider of next generation payment services in Russia and the CIS, has joined the R3 blockchain consortium to collaborate on the design and potential application of distributed and shared-ledger inspired technologies to global financial markets.

QIWI is the first company from Eastern Europe to join the consortium’s global network. It joins over 60 leading financial institutions focused on building the next generation of global financial services technology. Qiwi will be working with other members in the unique environment of the R3 Lab and Research Centre, which has quickly become a center of gravity for collaborative research and testing of distributed and shared-ledger inspired technologies.

“QIWI is thoroughly involved in developing and testing blockchain projects and ideas that can be directly applied to its core payment market. We believe that blockchain projects that we are currently working on can be applied on one of the R3 platforms and have great potential to be favorably perceived by regulated financial institutions,” said Sergey Solonin, QIWI's chief executive officer.

Earlier in July, QIWI signed a mutual memorandum, expressing its intention to join the blockchain consortium created by the Central Bank of Russia.

“QIWI is working closely with national regulators and domestic financial institutions in order to familiarize the market with these technologies. At the moment, we are at the stage of international integration. The capabilities of distributed and shared-ledger inspired technologies are very exciting for us and can help us upgrade and improve the technologies underlying our core business”, Solonin added. “Our goal with R3 is to explore this emerging technology space as we shape the future of payments and transactions throughout collaborative research with other members of the consortium.”

The R3 team of financial industry visionaries, technologists and blockchain and cryptocurrency experts collaborate with consortium members on research, exploration, design and engineering to help advance this technology and enable it to meet the requirements that banks have in respect of identification, privacy, security, scalability, interoperability and integration with legacy systems. QIWI’s participation will further increase footprint of the R3 consortium in new markets and regions.

“The addition of QIWI is a further milestone for R3. Eastern Europe is a key region for us as we expand our network of consortium members and continue to develop truly global applications for this groundbreaking technology”, David Rutter, CEO of R3, said.