The National Payments Corporation Of India (NPCI) plans to hire an expert blockchain technologist to explore and spearhead opportunities for blockchain in evolving payment systems, media reports said.
NPCI offers retail payment and settlement solutions in India and is backed by the Indian central bank and nearly 250 participating Indian banking companies.
NPCI owns and operates a locally developed instant payment system, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), that facilitates interbank peer-to-peer and person-to-merchant transactions. Several countries, including France, the UK, Singapore and Malaysia, are experimenting to adopt UPI payment systems.
In a recent job posting on LinkedIn, NPCI has sought to recruit for a senior leadership position, with the person having an in-depth technical understanding of multiple blockchain platforms. At least six years of experience in developing and implementing blockchain projects and an experience of working on at least two pilot blockchain projects are the other terms of eligibility.
The primary responsibility of the selected person will be to identify “avenues wherever blockchain-driven solutions can be used.”
Bank messaging network SWIFT recently issued a report outlining its approach to connecting with blockchain technology. It found blockchain integration to be more feasible than unified CBDCs.
In its publication titled “Connecting blockchains: Overcoming fragmentation in tokenized assets,” SWIFT concluded that an incremental strategy that links existing systems to blockchains is a “more plausible” path for market advancement in the near future, as opposed to consolidating central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), tokenized deposits, and assets within a single unified ledger.
