Ukraine

The Ukrainian Ministry of Energy offered the Energoatom energy generating company to explore the possibility of cryptocurrency mining using the potential of nuclear power plants.

The government of Ukraine will start overseeing all Bitcoin and cryptocurrency transactions, however, the current minister of finance has acknowledged that it is not virtual tokens but fiat currency which villains, fraudulent and corrupt public workers take advantage of.

The Ukrainian security authorities have detained cryptocurrency miners at a nuclear energy plant. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the law-enforcement agency and primary government security body in the fields of counterintelligence operation and fighting terrorism, arrested many people for illicitly mining Bitcoin and other digital assets at the country’s nuclear power plant (NPP).

A good number of countries including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Italy, Estonia, Ukraine, Denmark and Russia are planning to use blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT) to conduct their polls via sophisticated electronic processes and in other vital sectors. As the US presidential elections are getting closer, some blockchain-friendly candidates including Andrew Yang are proposing the use of the technology in e-polling, to avoid vote rigging and manipulation of poll results as what happened in the last elections.

In late 2017, the lead analyst of cryptocurrency exchange EXMO, Pavel Lerner, was kidnapped in Ukraine. On December 26th, men wearing dark-colored clothes and balaclavas forced him into a car and drove away. Lerner resurfaced only three days later, having paid a ransom to the kidnappers.

A new overview of the blockchain sector in Ukraine was recently published by the Ukrainian Blockchain Association (BAU). It highlights the formation phases of the sector and community, goes ahead to examine the firms participating in the market and also underlines the areas where these companies offer relevant solutions. The BAU also examined and analyzed future expectations of all market contributors, as well as the degree of business well-being with cryptocurrencies, distributed ledger technology (DLT) or blockchain and the existing regulations governing the industry.

Bitcoin (BTC), the leading cryptocurrency by market cap, just saw a major boost after the astonishing slogan “Bitcoin to the Moon” appeared on a tramcar in the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia. The pictures of the event were all over the social media and the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) declared that it has finished a pilot project to roll out its own cryptocurrency known as e-hryvnia.

Yulia Tymoshenko, ex-Prime Minister of Ukraine and aspirant for the presidential chair at next year’s elections, has suggested a persuasive way to help conquer corruption in the country. According to her point of view, blockchain technology is the perfect candidate for this role.

This week, Verkhovna Rada, the Parliament of Ukraine, will consider a draft law which amends the country’s tax code, suggesting tax immunity for all digital currency market users up to the end of 2029.