Russian Ministry Adds Waves Enterprise Blockchain Platform to Official Registry

Published at: April 15, 2020

The Russian Ministry of Communications has added Waves Enterprise to the Unified Register of Russian Software for Computers and Databases.

Documents published by the Russian Ministry of Communications on April 7 reveal that Waves Enterprise was added to the list and described as a “cloud-based distributed ledger service and service for virtualization and storage of data.” The list is meant to ensure high information security standards for authorities by suggesting information technology products for use in Russian government bodies.

Waves Enterprise head of marketing Matvey Voytov told Cointelegraph that – in order to be added to the registry — Waves Enterprise had to provide relevant compliance documentation to the authorities. 

The documents proved that the software does not contain any proprietary modules that were developed by or belong to foreign firms, does not include trade secrets, and belongs to a Russian company.

No effect on WAVES token price

Waves Enterprise head of marketing Matvey Voytov explained to Cointelegraph that it is a separate entity from Waves, and that it has a different token, the Waves Enterprise System Token (WEST).  As such, he expects this addition to have no effect on the price of the WAVES token.

Voytov said that Waves Enterprise is an enterprise-grade blockchain platform with a good market share in the Russian enterprise blockchain market. He said that the inclusion of the software in the official registry has major implications for the firm:

“The inclusion in the Federal registry of Russian software opens additional opportunities for getting into local government and public organization projects. [...] [Solutions based] on the Waves Enterprise platform will receive priority in procurement for governmental and municipal projects. In this way, the company can expand its presence in the public sector.”

Waves Enterprise is confident the Russian government will use its tech

Voytov said that Waves Enterprise is already certain that Russian governmental bodies will use its technology “because Russia is actively digitalizing and applies new technologies in its strategy, including blockchain.” He explained that, since it is a Russian solution, Waves Enterprise has greater probability for implementation by the Russian government:

“The expansion of the use of domestic and localized versions of software for state needs is one of the priority areas in [the] Russian market, which was set by the government of the Russian Federation.”

Russia’s relationship with blockchain technology

While the Central Bank of Russia’s first deputy governor recently said that blockchain technology is not the "universal solution” that it was promised to be, there is still much enthusiasm over its potential. 

To better understand the technology, in late March a Russian federal ministry introduced legislation that would legalize crypto and blockchain within a regulatory sandbox.

Meanwhile, panic spurred by the coronavirus pandemic and the consequent quarantines and rising unemployment apparently resulted in a 5% increase in traffic to crypto exchanges from Russia.

Additional coverage provided by Helen Partz

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