The State Service for Special Communication and Information Protection of Ukraine has said that it is not planning to regulate cryptocurrency mining, news portal cryptorussia.ru reported June 25. In response to an official request for information by the Better Regulation Delivery Office’s (BRDO), the representatives of the regulatory authority reportedly said that they have no intention to introduce licences for crypto mining as a special kind of activity. The BRDO is an organization that promotes economic freedom and efficient regulations in Ukraine. BRDO official Igor Samokhodski said that miners are trying to avoid publicity due to the uncertain status of …

Ukrainian police have arrested a group of four men suspected of running six fake cryptocurrency exchanges, Bleeping Computer reported June 21. Four men between ages 20 and 26 allegedly launched at least six digital currency exchanges, where they deceived users, subsequently stealing money from them. The alleged culprits lured users by promoting the exchanges with fake positive ratings and online reviews. The police reportedly said that the suspects had "special knowledge and skills in the field of programming" and "have created their own CMS-system for managing the content of exchange sites." During the raid of the suspects’ homes, the police …

A publicity stunt for the upcoming Initial Coin Offering (ICO) of Ukrainian social network ASKfm led to the death of one person last week, the Financial Times’ Alphaville reports Friday, May 25. According to FT, ASKfm sponsored “crypto enthusiasts” Taras Pozdnii, Roman Gorodechnii, and Dmitrii Semenko to climb Mount Everest and place a Ledger wallet holding 500,000 in ASKfm tokens at the peak, with a second wallet with an equal amount of tokens to be offered in a contest. A Youtube promotional video for the stunt asked its viewers to “get ready for the highest token. Literally,” offering the wallet …

Employees of the local headquarters of the National Police in Rivne, Ukraine have been mining cryptocurrency at work, local news outlet 368.media reports today, May 22. Citing materials from criminal proceedings, 368.media reports that employees of the local Police’s Communications Department have been accused of stealing electricity to mine cryptocurrency in the workplace. The unnamed employees were allegedly mining cryptocurrency at work for four months. 368.Media notes that it is yet unclear how much electricity was reportedly stolen or what kind of cryptocurrency was being mined. 368.Media writes that employees at the National Police’s Department for Internal Security found cryptocurrency …

Microsoft’s Windows Defender Antivirus has blocked an attack of more than 400,000 attempts over a span of 12 hours for trojans to infect users with a cryptocurrency miner, according to a Microsoft blog post on March 7. Windows Defender’s research showed that a little before noon (PST) on March 6, Windows Defender Antivirus began detecting these sophisticated trojans, which are new variants of an application called Dofoil (or Smoke Loader), attempting to inject cryptocurrency mining malwares through “advanced cross-process injection techniques, persistence mechanisms, and evasion methods.” The majority, or 73 percent, of these instances came from Russia, with 18 percent …

A blockchain-based system for holding online auctions will be launched in Odessa region, Ukraine, in February 2016. The system will allow leasing and selling state property in a decentralized and transparent manner. Such a solution could help fight corruption in this sphere. The current system of state property in Ukraine is centralized. So when this property is sold or leased, only a certain amount of people that control the system get the benefit of it. Thanks to the Blockchain, state property would go online and would be sold or leased without the ability of any particular person to control or …

Dr. Pavel Kravchenko is currently an advisor at decentralized platform Decent and co-founder of DistributedLab. He does a great job on raising Bitcoin and Blockchain awareness in Ukraine, giving lectures and organizing conferences and meetups. Pavel also is an organizer and a think-tank of the BIP001 conference, which aims to raise Bitcoin and Blockchain awareness among Ukrainians and establishing bridges between EU, US and Ukrainian markets. Cointelegraph is a media partner for the conference. Our task is to outline the main issues of the Ukrainian crypto market that will be discussed at the conference. Pavel kindly agreed to discuss with …

Bitcoin regulation looks imminent in Ukraine, with the release of its own BitLicense draft. Initial reception has been described as “surprisingly positive” by the country’s Central Bank and financial sector. BitLicense: Ukraine Michael Chobanian, founder of the Kuna Bitcoin Agency and the Bitcoin Embassy in Ukraine, presented a report titled “Project for the Development of Bitcoin in Ukraine.” He submitted it at the extended session of the commission on the issue of individual payments board before the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) held on May 27. Citing Bitcoin’s potential, as well as investor interest within the country, Chobanian proposed to …

A group of hackers tried to leverage the current conflict between Ukraine and Russia by distributing malware aimed at Bitcoin wallets. Bitdefender Labs, a cyber-security company with a keen interest in the digital currency market, issued a report where it highlighted how the alleged hackers masked one type of malware as another. Kelihos Apparently, the perpetrators dispensed software programs that they claimed capable of unsettling the digital activities of the Western governments combating against the Russian territory. In fact, the program secretly installed Kelihos, a malware package which was first identified 5 years ago. Kelihos can steal the content of …

Apparently no ATMs might be needed in Ukraine. A group of Bitcoin-enthusiasts in the country have made a real breakthrough in integrating Bitcoin with conventional payment systems. Btcu.biz (in Russian) has figured out a way for people to buy cryptocurrencies for fiat through one of the four thousand terminals spread across Ukraine (see: map). The terminal network working with Btcu is owned by a Ukranian Bank called “Bank National Credit.” These terminals are located on virtually every corner in major cities, which would make it a lot more convenient and less time-consuming to acquire cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. At the …

The recent revolution in Ukraine has brought up many questions about the country’s future but produced so few answers. In Kiev, the creative center Ziferblat (“Dialpad”), working in conjunction with FruitWallet digital wallet, began accepting bitcoins at its location on April 10. Given the overwhelming news coverage peppered with political upheaval, cultural discord, and severe economic troubles in Ukraine, does the adoption of Bitcoin by a single business speak volumes about the future of digital currencies in the country? Ziferblat, which hosts live concerts, language clubs, lectures, a library, and a café, opened in its Kiev location in late March. …