Russia’s Sberbank and S7 Airlines to sell flight tickets for tokens

[bitcoinst]

Sberbank, the largest state-owned bank in Russia, is working with a major domestic airline company to introduce a blockchain-based ticket sale system.

Russia’s largest bank is reportedly collaborating with S7 Airlines on a new ticket sale platform that will enable corporate clients with instant settlement through smart contracts and tokens.

According to an Aug. 26 report by local newspaper Kommersant, the new system is planned to roll out in September 2020. This would be the first time virtual tokens are used for payment and settlement in Russia, the report notes.

As reported, the new system is only targeting corporate clients at the current stage of development. The blockchain-powered system intends to cut settlement time from as many as 10 days to just 20 seconds, representatives at Sberbank and S7 reportedly said.

According to Kommersant, the new ticket sales system uses a proprietary blockchain platform that allows companies to develop their own blockchain applications as well as create smart contracts. As such, S7 Airlines has already placed its blockchain ticketing app on the platform by Sberbank, Kommersant states.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/russia-s-sberbank-and-s7-airlines-to-sell-flight-tickets-for-tokens

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[shakesbear]

I am skeptical of such news when a Bank tries to launch a blockchain project, especially a state Bank, but good luck to them.

[Danslip]

First, the Russian government has banned the crypto ecosystem in Russia, and old aged crypto projects have been moved to Russia, Ukraine, Latvia. Now the biggest Russian state bank wants to take advantage of the transparent blockchain ecosystem, how ironic it sounds. The Sberbank is the largest bank in Russia and I doubt the plus sides of blockchain will cover the shady system behind it. Now it is time to rethink their viewpoint toward crypto&blockchain and I hope the Russia will not ban the crypto trading. Maybe there will be a new law about accepting cryptocurrencies as a means of payment.

[bitcoinst]

First, the Russian government has banned the crypto ecosystem in Russia, and old aged crypto projects have been moved to Russia, Ukraine, Latvia. Now the biggest Russian state bank wants to take advantage of the transparent blockchain ecosystem, how ironic it sounds. The Sberbank is the largest bank in Russia and I doubt the plus sides of blockchain will cover the shady system behind it.

There is an irony, however, you need to understand that the cryptocurrency is not completely banned, it can be stored, but you cannot pay.
In any case, I can call the fact that she received at least some kind of legal status progress.
As for the above case, why not? It is not excluded that the initiative will shrink and in the near future we will see the data of Russian citizens put up for sale on the darknet, as it was recently.

[Lizzylove1]

I don't usually understand the the nature of news coming out from Russia as regards cryptocurrency, same news never come up morning and evening always conflicting news. Hopefully they should allow a free flow of decentralized coins. 

[livingfree]

I am skeptical of such news when a Bank tries to launch a blockchain project, especially a state Bank, but good luck to them.

It is not what you think.

The ticket sales system is just upgrading on that company through blockchain. There's not that much to think about if they want to adopt blockchain on their system.

Their customers can enjoy the usage of it and it doesn't matter if they will issue their own token.

[hatshepsut93]

As reported, the new system is only targeting corporate clients at the current stage of development. The blockchain-powered system intends to cut settlement time from as many as 10 days to just 20 seconds, representatives at Sberbank and S7 reportedly said.

You don't need blockchain for fast settlement, you just need to upgrade your ancient software and maybe start using some existing solution. If modern banks have instant transactions, why can't these airlines have it too?

Blockchain is immutable and was created to achieve decentralization, and there obviously be no decentralization here, so it's just a misplaced over-engineered solution for this use case, or just a PR statement at this point.

[bayu7adi]

First, the Russian government has banned the crypto ecosystem in Russia, and old aged crypto projects have been moved to Russia, Ukraine, Latvia. Now the biggest Russian state bank wants to take advantage of the transparent blockchain ecosystem, how ironic it sounds. The Sberbank is the largest bank in Russia and I doubt the plus sides of blockchain will cover the shady system behind it.

Agree, Russia issued a policy on banning bitcoin and it is still in effect today, only then did this news finally emerge which was a change in regulations regarding the use of cryptocurrency.

"Starting January 1st, 2021, cryptocurrencies will be allowed in Russia, though they will not be allowed to be used in exchange for any goods or services. There may be more regulation coming in upcoming sessions, but as of now, it seems that Russians can mine, trade cryptocurrencies for other cryptocurrencies on exchanges, and own cryptocurrencies without any legal issues — so long as they don’t spend it on other goods and services within the domestic economy." by Forbes

That means, the issue regarding ticket purchases has violated the new regulations that will apply. And I love this person's answer, that bad news will come soon after it is released

I don't usually understand the the nature of news coming out from Russia as regards cryptocurrency, same news never come up morning and evening always conflicting news. Hopefully they should allow a free flow of decentralized coins. 

[Yogee]

An experiment to see if they can actually make it work. Let's wait for feedback from actual airline customers once the tokenization is rolled out.
The valuation will most probably be 1 RUB = 1 airline Token. I don't expect their token to be listed on public exchanges. 

.....
Blockchain is immutable and was created to achieve decentralization, and there obviously be no decentralization here, so it's just a misplaced over-engineered solution for this use case, or just a PR statement at this point.

There should be a proper term for these technologies. What does "proprietary blockchain" even mean?
"Private blockchain" doesn't sound right.
"Blockchain wannabe" gives me a good chuckle but they'll never accept that.

Any suggestions?

[Finestream]

I am skeptical of such news when a Bank tries to launch a blockchain project, especially a state Bank, but good luck to them.

This is probably a centralized system, they are not into crypto I guess although the blockchain idea came from crypto. It's good to see that they are making used of the blockchain technology, although it does not have direct positive effect to the crypto market but in the long run I believe it will have.

It's a banking blockchain, so expect full regulation from the central bank, what I liked in this proposal is that everything will be transparent and transactions would be faster with the blockchain.

I'm just wondering what smart contract they'll use.

[DoubleEdgeEX]

Awesome! And now let this flight tickets get exchanged not only for a random Putin-token but for everything else as well. Like trade your airline bonus miles on an exchange to get a coupon from your favorite shop 30% off or use it to buy a gift from a local salesman. Everything exchangeable for everything. Gets me especially excited because we are working on such a thing.

[tsaroz]

I am skeptical of such news when a Bank tries to launch a blockchain project, especially a state Bank, but good luck to them.

This is probably a centralized system, they are not into crypto I guess although the blockchain idea came from crypto. It's good to see that they are making used of the blockchain technology, although it does not have direct positive effect to the crypto market but in the long run I believe it will have.

It's a banking blockchain, so expect full regulation from the central bank, what I liked in this proposal is that everything will be transparent and transactions would be faster with the blockchain.

I'm just wondering what smart contract they'll use.

It's a private tokenization for easing the ticketing system. It's for transparency and lack of ambiguity than decentralizations.
They want blockchain to make their system free from human error or mal-intentions. This would certainly be easier to customers as well as they could book without any issue and be confident on what to expect. It probably is just like any other membership card but one who's data runs on blockchain.

[Finestream]

I am skeptical of such news when a Bank tries to launch a blockchain project, especially a state Bank, but good luck to them.

This is probably a centralized system, they are not into crypto I guess although the blockchain idea came from crypto. It's good to see that they are making used of the blockchain technology, although it does not have direct positive effect to the crypto market but in the long run I believe it will have.

It's a banking blockchain, so expect full regulation from the central bank, what I liked in this proposal is that everything will be transparent and transactions would be faster with the blockchain.

I'm just wondering what smart contract they'll use.

It's a private tokenization for easing the ticketing system. It's for transparency and lack of ambiguity than decentralizations.
They want blockchain to make their system free from human error or mal-intentions. This would certainly be easier to customers as well as they could book without any issue and be confident on what to expect. It probably is just like any other membership card but one who's data runs on blockchain.

This is a great innovation for them although the idea is not new but they are the first to implement this kind if I'm not mistaken.

So basically, all transactions will be coming from and going to Sberbank (customer's account to Sberbank), am I right? I think this bank also has a lot of payment processor partners so it would be easier for customers to buy token for the tickets. It's a great idea that could be a model for others in the same industry to be followed.

[Yaunfitda]

I don't usually understand the the nature of news coming out from Russia as regards cryptocurrency, same news never come up morning and evening always conflicting news. Hopefully they should allow a free flow of decentralized coins. 

You nail it, Russia seems to contradict themselves regarding their supposedly crypto adoption. So regarding this news, I will be skeptical, although this is good to hear that some banks are going to used blockchain to sell their airline tickets, but with the government hard line stance on crypto, I do hope that this will be successful. As we don't know, maybe the government will over turn everything, and I take everything with a grain of salt regarding crypto news coming from Russia. So let's see how it goes.

[Metall303]

I think that such large goverment structures do everything only in their own interests and most likely they will work with some kind of state, centralized, cryptocurrency