While cryptocurrencies remain banned in Russia, their underlying tech, blockchain, is more and more actively used by the country’s major companies. Sber on the forefront of blockchain adoption Earlier this month, Russia’s largest lender, state-run Sber, announced the first ever deal involving a blockchain-based smart contract – a technology facilitating the execution of deals automatically and without a need for the counterparties to trust each other. According to Sber, it was Russia’s first ever deal in which a customer obtained a bank guarantee under a smart contract written to the blockchai…