Kazakhstan Central Bank Develops Blockchain Mobile App for Securities

Kazakhstan’s central bank has completed a pilot phase of a blockchain mobile application that will ultimately enable investors to purchase and sell securities directly from the central bank.

The pilot phase of the project will allow investors to buy short-term debt notes from the National Bank of Kazakhstan through a mobile application, with no commission fees. According to the bank’s announcement, the debt notes for sale will be valued at about 100 tenge (approx. $0.3).

An excerpt from the announcement underlined the advantages that a blockchain-based issuance system would bring to investors.

It read:

The proposed project will allow citizens to buy and sell the notes of the National Bank online from a mobile phone, bypassing intermediaries, namely brokers and dealers. No taxes and no commissions. Absolute liquidly and no restrictions on the periods of ownership.

The central bank specifically pointed to blockchain’s core features of immutability and record-keeping that will keep an account of executed deals while tamper-proofing the details.

To gain access to the feature, investors will simply need to register themselves via the mobile app. The mobile app will then prompt users to buy electronic money (possibly a top-up) before using them to purchase securities. Similarly, the app will also enable investors to sell securities, at “any time.”

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“Each operation with short-term notes will be stored as a transaction that has its own identifier and formation algorithm,” the central bank explained. “All transactions will form a special transaction block.”

To get here, the central bank had to undertake “a comprehensive resolution” of the country’s legislation in securities and payments systems, citing a need to comply with customer identification protocols to combat money laundering. Remote identification is particularly key, as the convenience of a mobile application means that securities transactions will not see an intermediary’s presence nor require a personal visit by the investor or authority.

Notably, the central bank hinted at the issuance of other assets over its blockchain application, specifically pointing to IPOs.

The blockchain mobile app is currently undergoing internal testing and is scheduled for release later this year.

Featured image from Shutterstock.