iPhone Owners Will Not Be Able to Use the Digital Ruble - Vedomosti

The Bank of Russia's website states that owners of iOS devices will be able to use the digital ruble only if they have an up-to-date version of a banking application with the corresponding functionality. According to the newspaper's information, banks will not be able to upload updated versions of applications with digital ruble support to the App Store until September 1. In addition to sanctions, there is another reason - in the Bank of Russia's requirements for cryptographic information protection tools and the specifics of the digital ruble platform's infrastructure: applications must use Russian cryptographic standards and access specific Central Bank domains and APIs. For Apple, such elements serve as markers of belonging to the Russian state financial infrastructure, Vedomosti was told. Such certified solutions already exist on Android.

Apple analyzes not only the code but also the origin of the build - which Apple IDs and cryptographic keys were used, from which device the development was conducted, what network requests the application makes, explained Dmitry Entin, head of the development department at the IT company EvApps. If signs of a sanctioned bank are detected, the application is blocked, and sometimes the entire developer account is blocked as well. The problem could be solved by "guerrilla applications," but such clones, as a rule, survive on Apple's marketplace for no more than a few days, or even hours, the expert emphasized.

Alternative options remain for iPhone users, experts interviewed by Vedomosti say. Some banks have implemented the digital ruble functionality in web interfaces. However, VTB, RSHB, and Rossiya told journalists that the digital ruble is available only in their applications for Android and nowhere else.

Starting September 1, access to the digital ruble should be provided by 12 banks recognized by the Central Bank as systemically important. These include the largest credit organizations Sberbank, VTB, Alfa-Bank, T-Bank, Gazprombank, Promsvyazbank. Moreover, the digital ruble wallet must be integrated not into a separate application (for example, from a third-party developer or the Central Bank itself), but into a section within the bank's own application.

All major Russian companies are required to begin accepting digital rubles for payment starting in September. Telecommunications operators and marketplaces have announced the service launch.