Ukraine’s central bank seeks to hire a blockchain developer, job posting reveals

The National Bank of Ukraine, the country’s chief monetary authority, has recently taken to professional social network LinkedIn to promote its blockchain developer job opening. The ad was published by the director of NBU’s IT department, Vladimir Nagornyuk.

The ad goes on to list “development, implementation and modification of infrastructure services […] and distributed systems” among the prospective employee’s duties, in addition to mentioning smart contracts and Hyperledger competencies among the requirements for the job.

The central bank’s interest in blockchain hires adds to other recent news coming out of Ukraine’s CBDC project, the e-hryvnia. Last week, speaking at a round table discussion on the opportunities and risks of virtual assets’ legalization, Ukraine's deputy minister of digital transformation Oleksandr Bornyakov mentioned that the e-hryvnia pilot was underway.

NBU has been considering the possibility of issuing a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, since 2016, while pilot testing of the e-hryvnia as a means of blockchain-based retail payments began two years later, in 2018. The work may have accelerated following the recent adoption of legislation designed to establish a transparent regulatory framework for digital assets and spur the development of the nation’s crypto industry.