According to latest reports, government officials in Moscow have expressed their willingness to explore the applications of blockchain technology that underpins digital currency bitcoin.

Gazeta.ru reported that Deputy Head of the Department of Information Technologies (DIT) of Moscow Andrey Belozerov has said that the agency is ready to test the technology for various use cases. In particular, Belozerov has suggested integrating blockchain technology into Active Citizen, a government initiative aimed at getting citizens to become more involved in the decision-making process.

To that end, he recommends that blockchain nodes must be located in the audited organizations. According to Gazeta.ru, Sberbank, one of the largest banks in Russia, has expressed its desire to join the initiative.

Belozerov also emphasized on the need to build blockchain architecture and determine whether the technology should be introduced in the legal field.

The announcement follows the efforts by the Russian central bank to create a blockchain consortium. Russian payments provider QIWI, BINBANK, MDM Bank, Otkritie Bank, Tinkoff Bank and Accenture signed a mutual memorandum, expressing their intention to join the consortium. More recently, Sberbank has expressed its interest in joining the blockchain consortium.