Real-world adoption and the ability to service the needs of a wide range of industries are key qualities to have for blockchain projects that seek long-term viability in an increasingly crowded and evolving landscape. One cryptocurrency project from 2016 that has seen its price breakout to new highs in May is Waves (WAVES), a multi-faceted blockchain protocol that has seen significant growth in 2021 thanks to recent strides in decentralized finance (DeFi), nonfungible tokens (NFT) and real-world adoption. Data from Tradingview shows that after hitting a low of $12.22 on April 25, the price of Waves has swelled more than …

New research from one of the top 10 major banks in Russia, Otkritie Bank, has found that 14% of Russians think crypto will replace fiat in 10 years. According to Russian publication Nord News, the survey was conducted between April 12 and April 16, with a sample base of 1,000 Russians aged between 18 and 65 who live in cities with a population of over 100,000. The results varied among regions, with respondents from the Northwest having the least faith in crypto — just 8% believe crypto will oust fiat in a decade, while 34% adamantly refuse to believe that …

Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, aims to fight intellectual property infringement in the space industry with blockchain technology. Roscosmos started testing an IP protection solution based on the Waves Enterprise blockchain platform, a hybrid blockchain platform developed by the eponymous local blockchain firm. Dubbed IP Guard, the blockchain-based tool detects violations of IP belonging to Roscosmos and other industry organizations. Using the tool, Roscosmos can reportedly maintain and verify a database of IP data objects as well as coordinate IP experts, such as lawyers, patent specialists and auditors. Waves Enterprise chief commercial officer Igor Kuzmichev said: “The most notable properties of …

The number of cryptocurrency holding disclosures in Russia has been on the rise over the past several months, according to a new report. Russian news agency Izvestia reports Thursday that Russians have been increasingly disclosing their income from crypto trading for tax purposes. The report cites data from consulting and law firms such as KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, FTL Advisers, as well as Moscow-based public policy think tank the Center for Strategic Research. “We’ve observed that Russian residents have started voluntarily disclosing income from operations with digital assets, mainly with cryptocurrency, in tax declarations,” FTL Advisers’ partner Maria Kukla said. She noted …

Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, believes that the country’s not-yet-launched digital currency is the “highest form of money.” In a Monday interview with state media RT, Aksakov expressed optimism about Russia’s upcoming central bank digital currency, or CBDC, predicting that a digital ruble will become an integral part of national settlements in two or three years. Aksakov said that the Bank of Russia expects to finalize a digital ruble prototype by the end of 2021, and plans to issue a development roadmap in the near future. “The digital ruble is the highest form …

Russia’s State Hermitage Museum, the second-largest art museum in the world, is preparing to host a digital art exhibition involving non-fungible tokens. Scheduled to take place in 2021, the Hermitage’s NFT project will be Russia’s first exhibition in the field of NFT art, the museum officially announced Thursday. The Hermitage’s contemporary art department is organizing the exhibition, which will be part of its “Hermitage 20/21” project. The announcement read: “Non-fungible tokens have become a new form of securing rights to an artwork using blockchain technology, which allows you to establish unambiguous control over copyright and ownership rights.” The Aksenov Family …

Waves Enterprise has onboarded Tokenomika Pte Ltd., a Singapore-based fintech company, as an operator for its hybrid public-private blockchain. Tokenomika will operate the Waves Enterprise public permissioned network, starting in March. The expansion comes as part of a strategy shift for Waves Enterprise, focusing more on hybrid networks that can interface with public blockchains like Ethereum. In Gartner’s “hype cycle for blockchain” report, the analytical firm predicts that the enterprise world will gradually move away from fully private networks to hybrid or even fully public options. Waves Enterprise is making a bet on this prediction, focusing on creating networks that …

Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service, or Rosfinmonitoring — the country’s Anti-Money Laundering body — is policing crypto to fiat transactions. The federal executive body responsible for AML oversight made this known while addressing the members of parliament on Tuesday, according to a report by Russian news agency Regnum. In a meeting with members of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, Herman Neglyad, deputy chief of Rosfinmonitoring revealed that the AML watchdog was working with commercial banks to police crypto to fiat transactions, stating: “Banks have already begun to pay attention to exchange operations, that is, when they see …

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stressed the importance of developing additional measures to fight against illegal cross-border transactions of digital financial assets. Speaking at a board meeting of the General Prosecutor’s office Wednesday, Putin stated that “criminal elements have been increasingly deploying digital financial assets,” which needs special attention from the government. “There is one more point — quite new, but essential: we should take additional measures to suppress illegal cross-border movement of digital financial assets,” Putin said. The President ordered local enforcement as well as the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring, or Rosfinmonitoring, to give all their attention to …

Member states of the Eurasian Economic Union, or EAEU, have been struggling to come up with a shared stance regarding cryptocurrency regulations, according to an official. Iya Malkina, assistant chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission Board, stated that EAEU member states did not support a recent initiative for a uniform cryptocurrency regulatory framework within the union. In a press briefing Wednesday, Malkina explained that the Eurasian Economic Commission received several proposals to synchronize regulations in the industry of blockchain and crypto. The EEC also recommended developing a basic uniform regulatory framework within the EAEU with a single glossary and principles. …

Russian punk feminist group Pussy Riot has released a new music video and is auctioning a series of four, non-fungible-tokens to accompany its release and raise funds for their art projects and local activism. The group first rose to prominence in 2012 after staging a guerilla performance of an iconoclastic feminist punk song in Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral in protest against the Orthodox Church's complicity with Vladimir Putin's regime. Shortly after, the group's members were arrested for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" and later sentenced to two years in a penal colony. The music video for the group's latest …

The central bank of Russia is expecting to start pilots for its central bank digital currency in 2022, a senior executive reportedly claimed. Bank of Russia deputy governor Alexey Zabotkin said that the bank is planning to complete a prototype digital ruble by the end of 2021, local news agency Prime reports Wednesday. Zabotkin announced the plans at an online event hosted by Moscow's New Economic School. Zabotkin stated that the prototype will not support “real transactions” but would rather serve as a starting point to build the ecosystem on. “Based on this prototype, including refinement, we will start rolling …