According to a report published in South Korean business publication The Bell, electronics giant Samsung has partnered with a Taiwan-based hardware manufacturer TSMC to produce a new line of ASICs for the cryptocurrency mining market. The report states that prototyping and development began last year, with mass production of the chips starting earlier this month.

This time last year, the idea of any national government considering the possibility of creating its own cryptocurrency would have been laughable. Times have definitely changed. This week, both Russia and the UK made it clear that they’re at least giving the concept of a state-backed cryptocurrency serious thought.

Yesterday, Russian blockchain technology firm Waves

Late last week, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters that his ministry was drafting plans to regulate both cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs). The move comes as a surprise, as only last year the ministry proposed criminal charges — with a maximum sentence of seven years in jail — for those dealing in […]

A bill prepared by Russia’s Ministry of Finance targeting the creation and circulation of so-called money surrogates, a classification that would include digital currencies like Bitcoin, has been at least temporarily withdrawn from consideration following comments from the country’s Justice Ministry. As reported by regional news source RNS, the bill – popularly known as the […]

There are few places in the world where bitcoin’s legal status is more unclear than in Russia. In February, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said that “money substitutes” such as bitcoin are explicitly illegal. In July, the Bank of Russia (the country’s central bank) said that digital currencies “should not be rejected” and said it […]

As one of the co-founders of Russian social media hub VK (formerly VKontakte), Lev Leviev knows a thing or two about turning a solid tech idea into a money-making enterprise. VK is now the second-largest social networking site in Europe, second only to Facebook, and is generally placed in the top 20 most popular websites […]

Under a new proposal released by Russia’s Ministry of Finance, the use of cryptocurrencies in the already bitcoin-hostile country could become a criminal offense. The ministry released the proposal on its website last week. Bitcoin and other digital currencies are already “forbidden” in Russia, although the country has provided little clarity on what this means […]

The Wall Street Journal reports today that Russia’s longstanding hostility to bitcoin may be easing. The paper reports that the Bank of Russia has altered its policies, and will no longer restrict the use of virtual currencies. Earlier this year, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office declared bitcoin to be an illegal form of currency, and […]

In February, Russia’s General Prosecutor’s Office released a statement that seemed to plainly state that using Bitcoin was illegal in the country. The statement seemingly left no gray area around Bitcoin’s status in Russian law. The anonymous payment systems and crypto-currencies, including bitcoin – which is the most popular of them – are monetary surrogates. […]