Can Bitcoin, if inherited digitally, be stored securely? Russia says yes. A new project plans to use the cloud service for secure storage. It has roped in one of the largest state-owned banks in Russia – Sberbank. Based on new blockchain technology, a team of experts in Russia is developing a service that shall allow the users to entrust their cryptocurrency assets as well as digital rights to whoever they want to. NTI or The National Technological Initiative announced the new digital inheritance tool. It is a Russian leadership program working in global technology.
Experts from local Russian universities, namely Lomonosov Moscow State University, the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, and the National Research Nuclear University, have joined hands for this blockchain-based service. According to Techtimes.com, the service, once launched, would allow its users to back up and store Bitcoin wallet keys and passwords to social media, among other assets and digital data. Aptly dubbed as ‘Time Capsule’, Techtimes representatives reportedly note that this service would further allow users to transfer digital possessions such as location coordinates, videos, texts, or images.
The working group, informs Dmitry Izvekov, the Project Manager, has initiated the process of creating a website allowing the storage of encrypted forms of digital possessions. That data can later be transferred to specific people on the date specified by the user. Izvekov further added that the facility of transferring information would be available only if conditions set by the website are met. The facility would be effective six months post uploading the data.
Sberbank (currently known as Sber), the largest state-owned bank in Russia owns and runs SberCloud, a cloud-based service. The encrypted data relating to digital inheritance shall be stored on SberCloud, claims the expert group’s report. The report further adds that users can duplicate the data over certain cloud services, especially DropBox. The creators of the project aspire to raise around 3 million rubles or $40,000 to fund their initiative. With the service getting popular over time and also by offering additional services, the team of experts expects to monetize the platform.
Incidentally, the largest bank of Russia is not the biggest fan of cryptocurrency. Herman Gref, the CEO of Sberbank, believes that bitcoins are among the riskiest investments aside from equity. Surprisingly, this is even though they have agreed to let the project team of the new blockchain-based service involve Sberank’s cloud-based platform in storing digital assets like Bitcoin (BTC) as part of the project.