#Russia

April 12, in the course of Exchange Forum 2016 in Moscow, head of Bank of Russia’s department for financial market development Yelena Chaikovskaya told that the Central Bank was watching the blockchain technology closely, and the attention was rather positive. Moreover, she said, blockchain may be used in the Central Bank’s project for bondization in […]

In the course of Bitcoin Conference Moscow, currently occurring in Russia’s capital, one of speakers stated he intends to bring Ethereum’s founder Vitalik Buterin to Moscow.

According to Rospatent, Russian patent bureau, a few days ago Moscow-based M-Group LLC failed to register “Bitcoin” as a brand. The company’s application required to register the trademark for classes 38 and 36 (telecom and financial operations respectively) of the International Classification of Goods and Services. Rospatent rejected to register the trademark as “the provided […]

Russia-based payments system OOOPay has added an option of accepting and withdrawing Bitcoin for users. Sergei Kravtsov, executive director of the company, says Bitcoin withdrawal is presently available via mass payments. A user may personally set up the option in the personal account. The withdrawal is also available by means of currency exchange. “Blockchain technology […]

March 10, Russian ministry of finance proposed to introduce up to seven years of imprisonment as a punishment for issuance and usage of money surrogates, including Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. ForkLog most certainly recalled QIWI’s project BitRuble, which at first thought is definitely subject to the law in question.

Russian ministry of finance proposes to introduce a punishment of seven year-long imprisonment for issuance of money surrogates including cryptocurrencies, Interfax reported with a reference to the agency’s sources in the ministry. The notification as to preparation of relevant amendments to the Criminal Code of Russia was published on March 10 on a site dedicated […]

Bank of Russia concedes employing blockchain technology to de-criminalize microfinancing market and enhance its transparency, Russian publication Izvestia reported. According to the publication, earlier this February the General Prosecutor’s Office of Russia demanded that the Bank of Russia tightens control over microfinancing organizations and pawn shops. A spokesperson for the Central Bank’s working group for […]

Cryptocurrency-related news from Russia are plentiful this week following a meeting of the parliament lower chamber’s working group on digital currencies. Governmental stance towards cryptocurrencies is apparently yet to be finally determined, as there have been numerous reiterations as to future of virtual money in the world’s largest country. The notorious and ominous draft law […]