Russian Central Bank Group Prepares ‘Masterchain’ Ethereum Fork for Testing
A group of Russian banks, payment firms and financial startups have completed an initial working version of their previously announced 'Masterchain' blockchain software. Revealed exclusively to CoinDesk, the Association of FinTech – a group formed in January under governance of the Central Bank of Russia – completed the work at the end of May. Built using a fork of the ethereum blockchain, the software is now ready to be used in ongoing proofs-of-concept, according to those close to the effort. But while built from the ethereum software, there is one key difference: Masterchain is built according to domestic cryptography standards. In interview, Kirill Ivkushkin, the Sberbank representative in the association's distributed ledger working group, suggested that…