Qiwi, The Russian Leading Payment Services Provider is Planning To Issue its own Digital Currency

A Russian government official has spoken out against a leading domestic payments company's plan to release its own digital currency sometime next year. Reports by Russian-language news services Kommersant and Pravda suggest that QIWI, a Moscow-based payments firm, is working to develop a bitcoin-like currency that will be a virtualization of the ruble. Sergei Solonin, QIWI's CEO, told Kommersant in an interview that the concept could be deployed as early as next year. However, a report from state-owned news service TASS suggests that Russian officials aren't warm to the concept. According....

The leading Russian payments service provider QIWI is putting together a consortium of banks to explore blockchain technology. Russia may soon have its own consortium of banks led by the country’s leading payment services provider QIWI. It is no secret that Russia has mixed feelings about Bitcoin and other digital currencies. Call it paranoia or being extra cautious, the country has gone far enough to make exchanging bitcoin to ruble a crime. According to a recent legislation passed by the country’s finance ministry, anyone caught converting bitcoin to the country’s legal tender can face....

A hacking group linked to the Anonymous collective has allegedly hit the popular Russian payment processor Qiwi. Network Battalion 65 announced on social media it had managed to gain access to the platform’s databases — a claim the company has denied. Anonymous Affiliate Hacks Russian Payment System Qiwi Hackers from Network Battalion 65 (NB65), a group linked to the decentralized hacktivist collective Anonymous, revealed in a recent tweet they had hacked Qiwi, which is a major provider of payment and financial services in the Russian Federation and other countries....

A new blockchain-based digital currency called project BitRuble is expected to launch in early 2016 sais Sergey Solonin. Russian payment service provider Qiwi has reportedly invested “several hundred million rubles” to develop the first cryptocurrency designed for the Russian market. Qiwi’s General Director Sergey Solonin stated: Blockchain technology will serve as the basis for the BitRuble. However, the fate of this currency might solely depend on whether Russia’s Central Bank and the government will give the project the green light according to CEO and co-owner of Qiwi, Sergei Solonin.....

New details have emerged about Russian payments giant Qiwi's plans to issue its own cryptocurrency. Russian-language bitcoin news site ForkLog spoke with Qiwi communications director Konstantin Koltsov and Alexei Arkhipov, who is overseeing the project, about the "bitruble", which made waves in Russian media circles last month after the firm announced its intentions. Russian government officials like financial ombudsman Pavel Medvedev later denounced the plan, but the company has moved ahead, filing for relevant trademarks and floating the notion of backing the currency with commodities.....