St. Petersburg State University Decentralized International System of Interbank Financial Communications

A decentralized interbank messaging system (DSM or DCMS Declassified Cross-border Message System) is a software package that provides decentralized exchange of financial messages between two or more participants. The key difference from existing systems (for example, SWIFT) is the impossibility of forcibly excluding participants, since there is no single owner. Includes a set of libraries for easy integration into existing automated information systems

2023

Platform View

In July 2023, the development team of the Center for Distributed Register Technologies of St. Petersburg State University presented the working interface of the DSM platform.

Platform features

Features of the Decentralized Interbank Messaging System:

• A key feature of the DSM is that it lacks a central owner. The architecture of the system does not assume consensus algorithms, and each participant stores only his own transaction history.
• DSM technologically supports the possibility of using various encryption algorithms, taking into account the legislation of different states.
• DSM has a recommendation algorithm aimed at equalizing the balances of mutual settlements between different participants.
• The program code of the DSM system kernel is distributed in open source format. In this case, participants can charge a commission if the financial message is transmitted through them to third parties (subject to compliance).

2022

Stages of creation

The implementation of the project of the Decentralized System of Interbank Communications began at St. Petersburg State University in April 2022. At the time of the creation of the DSM, there were no analogues of a decentralized system for transmitting financial messages in the world.

At the end of July 2022, its prototype was ready. The development was tested by potential users.

In December 2022, the project was awarded the Technological Breakthrough - 2022 Prize in the nomination Overcoming Barriers and Opening New Opportunities.

At the end of 2022, the development was included in the list of the main achievements of the year of the National Project "Science and Universities"

Development of a decentralized international system of interbank financial communications

The development of an analogue of the SWIFT system has begun at the Center for Distributed Register Technologies of St. Petersburg State University. The university announced this on April 12, 2022.

Since March 12, 2022, SWIFT has disconnected Russian banks from the global financial messaging system. The presence of a regulatory party that is able to disconnect any organization from interbank communication casts doubt on the reliability of this channel. The Center for Distributed Registry Technologies has begun work on the creation of a decentralized international system of interbank financial communications using blockchain technologies.

The solution will give all participants in the global banking system an instrument that will allow exchanging financial messages with a high degree of reliability. At the same time, banks will be able not to fear negative consequences, and states will be able to pursue a more independent policy, "said Dmitry Shishmakov, director of the Center for Distributed Register Technologies at St. Petersburg State University.

Each of the participating countries stores part of the program code and database, that is, it is a co-owner of the system, which completely eliminates the risk of illegally disconnecting any bank from the exchange of financial messages. Distributed registry technologies, in particular blockchain, act as a guarantor of access to technology, transaction security and openness.

Despite the rapid development of technology, and April 2022, there is still no absolutely independent and transparent way to transfer money between countries and continents. Since 2015, the Bank of Russia has developed its own alternative system for transmitting financial messages. An alternative to SWIFT exists in China as well. Unfortunately, none of these systems solves the issue of all participants' trust in it.

This product of the Center for Distributed Register Technologies of St. Petersburg State University will allow over time to abandon the influence of SWIFT not only in the Russian Federation, but also in each participating country. It is an independent system that cannot directly benefit financially and create restrictions on an individual country or organization. The university has all the necessary competencies and resources to implement this idea and can unite around itself other market participants within the consortium. The Center for Distributed Register Technologies of St. Petersburg State University is ready to act as a technical operator of this system, which is distributed, which means that it does not have a centralized organization that manages all processes.