Inshorts

Blockchain will protect the results of the open referendum. The authorities of Moscow are planning to use the blockchain for voting system "Active citizen", the platform of open e-referendums. New developments are designed to reduce the risk of fraud in voting, thanks to this, any network member will be able to verify the correctness of the voting and counting of votes. Andrei Belozerov, Deputy Director of the Information Technologies Department of Moscow said, that Moscow is ready to introduce blockchain technology and its use in the platform of "Active citizen" is an opportunity to assess how it is capable of accomplishing similar tasks.

A new round of development of the Canadian financial market. The Central Bank of Canada is exploring the possibility of creating its own digital currency. The paper published by the Bank of Canada's Office of Financial Institutions Management notes the main advantages and disadvantages of this step. The authors of this report are Ben Fug, the director of the Bank of Canada, and Walter Angert, the former director of the Financial Institutions of Canada, currently the Senior Research Advisor of Payments Canada. The report says, that the adoption of the new payment method will greatly simplify competition in the payments sphere, will make the storage of funds safer.

The Varna University of Management (VUM), one of the largest business schools in Bulgaria, announced the granting of ten scholarships in bitcoins to students who applied for scholarships in cryptocurrency. Each student will be allocated a sum equivalent to €1,000. The university administration stated: "Bitcoin gives great opportunities for the development of innovations and we want our students to take part in this digital revolution. Cryptocurrency is able to create a completely new industry and thousands of new jobs in our city and Bulgaria as a whole."

Reward for supporting the development of the project. The Bitclave project, which recently collected more than $25 mln in 32 seconds in token sales, introduced the Proof-of-Fan (PoF) promotion model as a tribute to the community. Fundraising is already completed, but for those who want to help, there is an opportunity to get a bonus and get on the whitelist. In order to do this, users need to publish a video, podcast or an article to share opinion, a review of BitClave in the blog and send a link to the BitClave chat.

Blockchain contributes to the improvement of the tourism industry. ATECH Foundation, which is engaged in the technical development of the Aruba island, together with the decentralized platform Winding Tree, plans to create a blockchain-based platform for travel booking directly between the client and the travel service operator. Tourism plays an important role in the country's economy, as more than a million tourists visit there every year. Varelie Croes, co-founder of the ATECH Foundation said: "Such a platform will help small state entities, like Aruba, to repay part of the profits and taxes while retaining the main income in the country."

Land owning data of Ukrainians on the blockchain. The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine presented the updated State Land Cadastre and its work based on blockchain technology. The adoption of new developments became possible thanks to the cooperation of the Ministry, the State Agency for Electronic Governance, the international anti-corruption organization ‘Transparency International Ukraine’ and the technical support of BitFury. Using blockchain gives an additional degree of protection and preservation of information on land owning. Alexander Ryzhenko, director of the State Agency for Electronic Governance said: "Blockchain is an ideal tool for ensuring transparency and greater public confidence. And our technical implementation is a common vision of the world's best experts and society, and fully complies with Ukrainian legislation."

A new round of development in mining. Bitferry, a large industrial miner and developer of equipment for working with blockchain technology signed a partnership agreement with the computer manufacturer Asus. The document was signed by the head of the Bitferry sales department, Artem Semenov, and the head of ASUS representative office in Europe and Russia, Alex Kim. Thanks to this cooperation, Bitferry will become one of the first companies that will get access to the latest developments and use of Asus video cards in its own equipment. In connection with the growing interest in the market for cryptocurrency, video cards have become very popular. The partnership between Bitferry and ASUS gives new prospects in the development of the mining industry.

Paying for rent in digital currency. The company ManageGo, which created a digital platform for rental housing, plans to accept payment in bitcoin, ethereum and litecoin. ManageGo provides services as a payment platform between tenants and landlords. Using the Coinbase API (API), payments made in any digital currency will be converted into local currency. Vice President of ManageGo, Chaim Lowenstein said: "We saw that the development of the platform can bring it to a new level, so we decided to take a chance."

A crypto-solution to fight against inflation. Venezuela plans to create a cryptocurrency, backed by the country's natural resources. This digital currency will be called ‘El Petro’, it will be controlled by the state and provided with natural reserves, such as gold, gas, diamonds and oil. Due to the high inflation of the national currency, digital money in Venezuela is already very popular. Nicholas Maduro, the president of the country said: "The creation of El Petro, will strengthen the monetary sovereignty of the country, overcome the financial blockade and will contribute to the economic and financial development of the country."