Russian telecommunication giant Rostelekom, together with the Russian Ministry of Digital Development and Communications, tested a blockchain-based voting system developed in collaboration with Waves Enterprise. As local news outlets reported, the preliminary test involved 30,000 people who were trying out the platform’s functionality and technical capabilities. According to Rostelekom spokespeople, the system worked as intended during the test and did not fail under high load. Votes were reportedly counted in less than one minute through homomorphic encryption systems. This method allows calculations to result in the same output even if the underlying data remains encrypted. Officials noted that the test …

As Russia is about to officially ban crypto payments within its borders starting on Jan. 1, 2021, Cointelegraph tracked down some senior executives in the crypto industry to talk about the implications of such a ban. Russia’s primary crypto opponent is Anatoly Aksakov, a member of the State Duma and a key architect of Russia’s crypto ban. In mid-August, Aksakov argued that legalizing crypto payments basically “means the destruction of a financial system.” Speaking to Cointelegraph, major global crypto figures like BitGo CEO Mike Belshe and Binance’s head of operations in Russia and CIS, Gleb Kostarev, concurred that payments in …

Expobank, a commercial bank in Russia, has reportedly issued the country’s first ever loan backed by cryptocurrency. According to an Aug. 19 report by local news agency Kommersant, Expobank provided the credit through issuing an individual bank loan powered by Waves (WAVES) tokens. Waves CEO and founder Alexander Ivanov confirmed the news in a tweet, noting that the loan used Waves tokens as collateral. He told Cointelegraph that the firm is not currently working with any other banks in developing tools for securing bank loans with Waves open protocol. Ivanov added that Waves did not promote the protocol for this …

The Neutrino protocol, a price-stable multi-asset protocol running on major blockchain platform Waves, is introducing the Neutrino dollar (USDN) on Ethereum. The Neutrino dollar, an algorithmic stablecoin collateralized by the Waves (WAVES) native token, is now available for all Ethereum users as the token has been ported to the Ethereum blockchain, Waves announced on Aug. 18. With the porting, Neutrino USD becomes accessible on Ethereum, enabling Ethereum users to stake rewards by just holding USDN in their Ethereum wallets, Waves CEO and founder Alexander Ivanov told Cointelegraph. The new integration also allows Ethereum developers to use USDN in their decentralized …

Facebook’s research and development engineers have launched a community platform built around predictions, encroaching on the territory of the emerging crypto-powered predictive market sector. Dubbed ‘Forecast’, Facebook’s new iOS app polls users on a variety of forward-facing issues, with respondents using in-app points to access surveys on the platform. Survey results will be made publicly available via the Forecast website. Facebook launches COVID-19 predictions The app is currently only available to invited users based in the United States and Canada while the platform is in beta testing. Prior to its invite-only beta launch on June 23, Forecast was tested internally …

Decentralized finance’s (DeFi) surging popularity might backfire and hurt the forward-looking sector, Waves Association founder Sasha Ivanov told Cointelegraph in a recent interview. Ivanov compared DeFi to the 2017 ICO craze in a tweet earlier today, saying, “Please let's not make a new ICO bubble out of #DeFI.” When asked to elaborate on his statement, the founder noted that he strongly believes in DeFi, but is worried about the hype surrounding it: “DeFi is the future, but it's going to be coming through a bubble part of the cycle now, which can harm its long-term development.” In Ivanov’s opinion, DeFi …

Waves Enterprise has created a framework for load testing of blockchain networks under real-life scenarios in order to provide greater transparency for potential clients. Original sin Transactional capacity or lack thereof has been a hotly contested discussion in the industry almost from the beginning. The first known response to Satoshi Nakamoto announcing Bitcoin (BTC) was on exactly this topic: “We very, very much need such a system, but the way I understand your proposal, it does not seem to scale to the required size.” A lot has changed since then. Many alternative consensus protocols have been developed, hundreds of public …

As part of a blog post detailing a different approach to blockchain transaction scaling, Waves Smart Contracts head of development, Ilya Smagin, noted the blockchain space often makes excuses for its shortcomings. "One of the things blockchain people are good at is explaining why user restrictions and inconveniences are insignificant and are actually the solutions rather than the problems," Smagin said in a June 4 post. Blockchain is still a young industry Although some of the underpinnings and inspiration for blockchain tech came into play in years prior, the technology gained true ground with the inception of Bitcoin's white paper …

Blockchain platform Waves.Exchange has launched a new prediction market allowing users to bet on whether the spread of the coronavirus pandemic has passed its peak. Customers can now purchase ‘COVID-UP-SEP20’ and ‘COVID-DOWN-SEP20’ tokens to bet on whether the number of new weekly cases worldwide will exceed April 4–10’s record of 595,802 confirmed infections before September. Waves.Exchange’s tokens are purchased in exchange for the stablecoin, Neutrino Dollar (USDN). All USDN used to buy the tokens are locked in escrow until September, and then distributed among the winners. The campaign will ostensibly contribute to coronavirus charity initiatives. Making waves with their new …

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 …

In the war against the novel coronavirus, cryptocurrencies are emerging as a much-needed tool for charity and fundraising projects. Already there are a number of large nonprofits accepting Bitcoin donations. Plus, some blockchain and crypto firms are contributing medical supplies to hospitals in an attempt to curb the virus, while others are setting up fundraisers and charities that are aimed at helping its victims. As a number of nonprofits continue to accept cryptocurrency donations, they are starting to realize that crypto transactions significantly reduce costs in terms of fees. Here are a number of charities and fundraisers that accept donations …

Waves has launched a macabre campaign to purportedly raise money for COVID-19 relief. The platform has created a tokenized parimutuel betting pool where users can speculate on whether the global number of confirmed coronavirus cases has risen or fallen within a given week. On April 3, Waves announced the ‘charity campaign,’ ostensibly in support of “organizations and funds in need of financial aid in fighting the global COVID-19 pandemic.” Waves launches tokenized COVID-19 prediction market Waves.Exchange users can now purchase ‘COVID-DWN’ or ‘COVID-UP’ tokens to speculate on whether the number of globally confirmed coronavirus cases increases or decreases within a …