State of Blockchain in Russia
2017 Overview
This market research was collected in November of 2017 by our partners at ITMO University: Denis Stolyarov and Olga Nekrassova, and translated to English.
Due to it’s original purpose to portray an overview for a potential Russian/Japanese blockchain incubator project, we were unable to publish the content immediately and with the rapid progression of blockchain technology, some aspects of it are outdated. Yet, it is still very useful to gauge the current state of blockchain technology in Russia.
Enjoy!
Introduction
Volume of venture investments in Russia
According to the research of the analytical company RB Partners Group, the volume of venture investments in Russia in the first half of 2017 grew more than 3 times compared to the first half of 2016 — from $98 million to $321 million.
Despite the growth in the volume of investments, the number of transactions decreased from 162 in the first half of 2016 to 149 in the first half of 2017. The average size of the transaction grew from $0.6 million to $2.2 million.
Among specific sectors, investors’ interest in B2B projects increased — the volume of transactions doubled to $98 million, the number increased from 69 to 72. The indicators were similar for B2C projects.
The main segments for investment were once again software and Internet, with an emerging subsegment of blockchain projects.
The main share of investment among investors and organizers of ICO projects (which basically are based on implementation of blockchain into business activities) is from China and the US. The share of Russian investors is only 2–3%, rarely 10–15%. On the other hand, now Russia is the country-leader in the crypto-currency market by the number of ICO projects. [source]
Market volume of Russian blockchain projects
Based on results of 2017, the market volume of Russian blockchain projects may reach the level of $16.7 million, according to an interview with the general director of QIWI Blockchain Technologies (QBT) Aleksey Solovyov with the Russian media portal HiTech.
According to the estimations of the specialist, for the first six months of 2017, the total market volume of blockchain projects in Russia was between $5 million and $8.3 million. However, these figures don’t take into account investments raised via domestic ICO projects.
Aleksey Solovyov also estimates that by 2020, the domestic blockchain market will grow by several times. The main drivers will be: the growth of real investments in blockchain projects, the implementation of and transition to blockchain platforms, and the introduction of blockchain technical regulations and the move towards blockchain by the government. [source]
Volume of investments in Russian ICO projects
In 2017, Russian projects raised $293 million through ICO, which is more than twice the amount of venture capital investment in 2016 ($128 million). This was announced by the general director of Skolkovo-Venture Investments Vasily Belov.
In total, 25 Russian ICO projects’ open data sets were analyzed. Of these, the five largest ones raised about $190 million in total. [source]
Blockchain and the Russian Government
In March 2017, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev instructed the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Economic Development to consider the possibility of using blockchain technology in the system of state administration and economy of the Russian Federation. This step reflects the preparation for implementation of the “Digital Economy” state program, which will be included in the government’s comprehensive action plan in 2017–2025. [source] As explained by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the program’s purpose is implementation of digital technologies “in all areas of life.” [source]
In October 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the Government to prepare amendments to legislation to regulate ICO activity by July 1, 2018. The amendments should provide “the regulation of public raising of funds and crypto-currencies via the method of placing tokens in analogy with the regulation of initial placement of securities”. [source]
The State Duma of the Russian Federation
On September 22, 2017, the State Duma (the lower house of the legislature) of the Russian Federation announced a tender to conduct a study of the market of cryptocurrencies, blockchain and related risks. The contract amount is almost $42,000. [source]
On September 28, 2017, the Expert council on Digital Economy and blockchain technologies was created under the Committee for Economic Policy, Industry, Innovative Development and Entrepreneurship. The Expert Council will deal with legal, expert and information-consultation support for the activities of the Committee on the Development of the Digital Economy and implementation of blockchain technology. [source] The Council includes the director of the Institute of financial cyber technologies of the ITMO University Maria Sigova and others. [source]
In mid-November, 2017, one of the deputies of the State Duma sent a letter to the Ministry of Industry and Communications and the Ministry of Communications of the Russian Federation with the initiative to create a city for cryptocurrency mining in Siberia or the Far East. Internet Ombudsman of Russia Dmitry Marinichev supported the idea of building the mining city. [source]
Central Bank of the Russian Federation
On July 1, 2016, the Bank of Russia in partnership with 10 large Russian banks created the “FinTech” consortium in the form of an Association for implementation of financial innovations and the breaking-in of blockchain technology.
In September 2016, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation announced the development of its own blockchain platform based on Ethereum called “Masterchain”. The development was conducted with the participation financial institutions including Sberbank, Alfa-Bank, Otkritie Bank, Tinkoff Bank, Qiwi, Accenture, Binbank, MDM Bank, VTB, Gazprombank, National Payment Card System, AK BARS Bank, Pay Center RNKO and Raiffeisen Bank. Test transactions in Masterchain were carried out in October 2016.
As the Russian regulator planned, the project will allow banks to promptly confirm data on customers and transactions, and also develop various financial services in a single electronic system. In short, a “state blockchain” is being developed for the Russian financial sector needs. At the moment, Masterchain is a private version of the blockchain, although the possibility of its expansion to a larger number of participants is preserved.
In August 2017 the “FinTech” Association presented a plan-guide for the Masterchain (whitepaper) platform work. Four areas were chosen that will be developed on the platform in the short term:
- Decentralized depository system for mortgage accounting
- The “Know Your Customer” project to prevent fraudulent transactions by exchanging information about individuals between system members
- Distributed register of digital bank guarantees
- Issue of digital letters of credit. [source]
Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
On October 5, 2017, the Ministry of Education and Science announced a competition for creating and launching a digital platform for knowledge sharing and copyright management based on the aggregation of copyright objects created in higher education institutions and ensuring the circulation of such objects and rights to them on the basis of distributed technologies registers. Initially, the project cost was estimated at $1.5 million. [source]
Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology
On August 11, 2017, the Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology (Rosstandart) announced the formation of a new technical committee for standardization called “Software and Hardware Distributed Registry and Blockchain Technologies”. [source]
State Corporation “Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs”
The Bank for Development and Foreign Affairs (BDFEA), as the leading development institution, is the coordinator of pilot projects for the implementation of blockchain technology in the public sector. BDFEA is a member of the working group on the blockchain technology use in public and corporate governance.
BDFEA together with the Federal Service of State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography has launched the federal project Blockchain Pitch to find innovative companies which are ready to create and launch pilot projects based on blockchain technology together with the state institutions and corporations.
Blockchain and education in Russia
Russian universities are expanding the inclusion of blockchain technology in their curriculum, which is seen as important not only in the financial sector, but also in others, for example, in medicine. [source]
Educational program and the inclusion of the subject of blockchain
Fundamentals of blockchain tech and cryptocurrency supplemented the curriculum of the leading Russian universities, including ITMO University, in 2017–2018. [source1, source2]
The Plekhanov Russian University of Economics is the first university that launched educational programs in the field of blockchain (implementation of a complex of educational programs, creating a rating agency for blockchain projects, developing a community of cryptocurrencies and blockchain projects). On September 25, 2017, it was announced that the director of this educational program will be a venture investor, the founder of the fifth largest in Europe crowd investment platform VentureClub.ru and the founder of the blockchain project Universa — Alexander Borodich. [source]
Mephius Blockchain Development Center
In September 2017, the National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI” (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute) and the M9 Group (engaged in real estate and agriculture investments) announced the opening of the “Mephius Blockchain Development Center” on the basis of the Institute of Intellectual cybernetic systems. At the initial stage, planned investments are more than $200,000 in the project.
The laboratory was opened at the Faculty of Economics in April 2016 as an academic structure. The international team of the laboratory of cryptoeconomics and blockchain systems includes scientists and talented students from Russia, Germany, Switzerland, and Great Britain.
The head of the program is Sergey Ivliev, co-founder and executive director of the international financial company Lykke.
The purpose of the research is to create mathematical models and practical application of blockchain systems and smart contracts for solving applied problems such as interbank and stock exchange settlements, financial calculations in international holdings and groups, open electronic voting, confirmation of copyrights to digital content and electronic notary. [source]
Blockchain and ITMO University (Saint Petersburg)
ITMO University (St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics) is one of the top-20 universities in Russia’s first national rating. It is one of six universities that have maintained budget funding under the “5–100” program, according to which at least 5 Russian universities should enter the top-100 leading universities of the world by 2020.
International Summer School “Green IT and Sustainable Development”
In the summer of 2017 (for the 4th time), the International Summer School “Green IT and Sustainable Development” was held at ITMO University. Participants took courses on both theoretical and practical aspects of green IT technologies: IoT (internet of things) in a cyclical economy, clusters and grid computing, open source software, semantic technologies for urban IT, modern data storage and cloud technologies. Much attention was also paid to blockchain technologies and modern methods of data storage. [source]
Membership of the Expert Council on Digital Economy and Blockchain Technologies
Maria Sigova, the the director of the Institute of financial cyber technologies of the ITMO University, is one of the members of the Expert Council on Digital Economy and Blockchain Technologies under the Committee for Economic Policy, Industry, Innovative Development and Entrepreneurship, which was established on September 28, 2017. [source]
“Drone Employee” Smart Contract project
Researchers from ITMO University, together with the Airlab team, are working on a project for the management of unmanned aerial vehicles “Drone Employee”, which autonomously create “smart contracts” upon completion of their assignment, i.e. researchers want to build a network in which robots themselves will ensure that they all correctly follow the instructions.
Blockchain technologies as a part of a master’s program
Since 2016, students have studied blockchain technologies within the master’s program “Mathematical Physics and Information Theory”. [source]
Offsite project school for schoolchildren and students GoTo
GoTo is an educational project in the field of industrial programming, data analysis and distributed systems. Within each camp, course or Hackathon, participants are invited to implement their project or solve a problem for industrial partners.
In the fall of 2017, ITMO University took part as the basis for the GoTo program for young blockchain developers. [source]
Within the framework of the track on blockchain systems within the GoTo program, there were lectures and practical master-classes from Bitfury Group about Exonum (a framework for private blockchain projects). [source]
Modern communication technologies and their applications in economics and finance
The International Scientific Laboratory of the ITMO University “Modern communication technologies and their applications in economics and finance” was included in the list of winners of the grant competition under the Russian Federation government’s Horizon 2020 program. The project was also supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.
The head of this international laboratory, Andrei Rybin, says that within the framework of the proposed study, ITMO University specialists plan to build interaction between “smart” facilities using blockchain technologies: smart contracts, a single operations register and decentralization of the network that will ensure a stable interaction of devices and a stable operation of the entire system. [source]
Blockchain technology and large Russian institutions: organizations, banks, companies
Sberbank — the largest commercial bank in Russia
Sberbank, one of the most technically advanced financial institutions in Russia, is working on the introduction of blockchain and cryptocurrency into banking. Sberbank began working with blockchain technology in 2014 via the Center for Technological Innovations of Sberbank. Early prototypes used by the bank systems were on Bitcoin, then on Ripple.
As a result, in 2016 Sberbank joined the HyperLedger consortium, which was founded by the Linux fund in December 2015. HyperLedger — a platform for creating blockchain without the use of mining, cryptocurrency, etc., works on IBM equipment and cloud solutions of IBM. HyperLedger, due to the absence of mining, doesn’t provide the means to earn money, rather, it allows for the creation of software products that can be used for earning money. Later, the Moscow stock exchange joined HyperLedger as well.
In 2016 Sberbank joined the working group of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation along with Qiwi, Alfa-Bank, VTB Bank, Gazprombank and Otkritie Bank. As a result, the “FinTech” Association was formed.
At the end of 2016, Sberbank has created several prototypes on the blockchain, including “Masterchain” of the Central Bank and the system of distributed workflow on private Ethereum.
In June 2017, Sberbank had 10–15 projects on the blockchain. [source]
QIWI
QIWI is the leading Russian payment service of the new generation in Russia and CIS countries. At the end of 2010, QIWI sold 14.9% of the company shares to the Japanese corporation Mitsui & Co. In 2015, QIWI held an IPO on Nasdaq, following the IPO Qiwi was valued by investors at $884 million. [source]
QIWI Blockchain Technologies (QBT) is an independent blockchain department of QIWI which was created in 2015. Initially, QIWI intended to create its own digital currency and launched a system of distributed payment processing, which, in some way, replicated the principle of the blockchain operation. Eventually, the QBT department continued with the existing development and assumed the functions of consulting and auditing.
Russian Venture Company, RVC
RVC is the state fund of funds, the Institute of Development of the Russian Federation. The main objectives of RVC: stimulating the creation of an indigenous venture investment industry in Russia and fulfilling the functions of the Project Office of the National Technological Initiative (NTI) which includes the direction of FinNet defined as decentralized financial systems and currencies.
The Skolkovo Foundation
Skolkovo is a non-profit organization created on the initiative of the Russian president in September 2010. The purpose of the Foundation is to mobilize Russia’s resources in the field of modern applied research by creating an enabling environment for R&D in five priority areas of technological development: energy efficiency, space, biomedicine, nuclear and computer technologies.
In May, 2016, Vitalik Buterin, with the support of the Skolkovo Foundation, first introduced Ethereum to Russian developers at the Ethereum Russia event. This event serves as a starting point for the development of projects and Community Ethereum in Russia. At the same time, it was announced that the Skolkovo Innovation Center was creating a Center for the development of blockchain technologies. [source]
The Skolkovo Foundation, several universities and the collective management society created an Association whose goal is to launch a unified IPCHAIN — intellectual property management platform in Russia.
The structure of the founders of IPCHAIN will also include ITMO University of St. Petersburg, the Russian Copyright Society (RAO), the Russian Union of Rightholders (RSP), the All-Russian Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the Higher School of Economics (HSE), among others. [source]
Internet Initiatives Development Fund
The Internet Initiatives Development Foundation (IIDF) is the Russian venture investment fund established by the Agency for Strategic Initiatives on the proposal of Vladimir Putin. The Fund provides investments to technology companies at early stages of development, conducts acceleration programs and participates in the development of methods for legal regulation of the venture industry. Since 2013, the IIDF remains the most active investment fund in Russia. [source]
The volume of the fund is 6 billion rubles ($100 million), contains more than 338 projects, the size of investments is up to $5.4 million.
Startups which pass the selection criteria receive an investment of $35,000 each in exchange for 7% shares of the project. At the conclusion of the program, the most successful companies can rely on raising an additional investment of $250,000, obtaining the status of “Skolkovo resident”, and receiving appropriate tax breaks and grants between $8,000 and $5 million. The fund gives preference to projects in the field of blockchain, cyber security, artificial intelligence, among others. [source]
Blockchain projects of Russian origin
According to the estimates by the online-journal “Republic”, a significant part of projects (21 of the 55) raising investments and are currently preparing for ICO have Russian roots. [source]
Famous Russian blockchain projects
Bitfury Group (launched in 2011) is a multi-disciplinary blockchain company that develops and delivers both software and hardware solutions necessary for businesses, governments, organizations and individuals to securely move assets across the blockchain. The expertise of the Bitfury Group is ensuring successful, easy, fast, secure and cost-effective connectivity to the blockchain. The general director and co-founder of Bitfury Group is Valery Vavilov.
In 2014, the company launched its own “BitFury Capital” seed fund which invests in bitcoin startups.
In mid-2016, the company, together with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and the Analytical Center New America, launched the Blockchain Trust Accelerator Initiative for projects aimed at using blockchain in the public sector.
In mid-2017, Bitfury Group has launched Exonum, a blockchain platform that helps people, businesses and governments safely and easily implement their ideas and solutions.
Waves is a decentralized platform for crowdfunding, that allows the creation of a transfer and exchange of custom and fiat tokens and assets through the Blockchain without volatility; Russian originally. Market capitalization is $575,8 million.
In June, 2016, during the ICO there were collected more than $16 million. At the same time, the platform included in the TOP-5 of the most successful blockchain projects in terms of the size of crowd investments.
Nowadays the Waves platform is implementing a new technology (Waves NG — New Generation), which allows processing thousands of transactions per minute. Thereby Waves platform is able to become the fastest decentralized blockchain platform in the world. The innovation will also contribute to the release of blockchain technologies to the mass market and will allow them to compete with traditional payment systems.
BlockNotary is a blockchain system for identification of remote clients and for conducting interviews; a kind of digital notary that allows to identify a person in front of a bank or regulator by uploading client photo or video to the platform. The project was launched in May 2015 by Igor Barinov as graduate work for a blockchain engineering courses at Blockchain University. [source]
This blockchain solution is used by Alfa-Bank (one of the largest banks in Russia) and several divisions of the Spanish banking group BBVA. [source]
The largest Russian ICO projects in 2017
MobileGo has raised $53 million for a month in April-May. MobileGo is developing a platform for mobile games based on the blockchain, which includes in-game marketplace for virtual items and decentralized multiplayer tournaments which are based on smart contracts, where one can spend tokens of the company.
Russian Mining Center (RMC) has raised $43.2 million for a month in August-September. The company intends to launch production of high-performance new generation mining farms under the Sunrise brand. The project belongs to the Russian Internet ombudsman Dmitry Marinichev and his partners.
SONM (Supercomputer Organized by Network Mining) has raised $42 million over 3 days in June. The project is developing a platform for decentralized “foggy” computing — an analog of cloud computing, but on the basis of a blockchain. One expects the “foggy” capacities can be used for any tasks — from hosting sites to scientific calculations.
Blackmoon Crypto has raised $30 million for 1 month in August and mid-September. The project belongs to Ilya Perekopsky, the ex-vice president of the most popular social platform in Russia, VKontakte. The startup is engaged in the service for the legal creation and management of investment funds with tokens, which can also be released through the Blackmoon Crypto platform.
KICKICO has raised $20.9 million for half of a month in August-September. The startup is engaged in creating a platform in which other projects can run crowdfunding campaigns to raise funds in a cryptocurrency. It is a service for ICO, where any projects can collect crypto investments by means of smart contracts. [source]
BitClave is a startup based in the Silicon Valley by Russian developers in 2016, that has collected $16 million for pre-ICO in July 2017. The project is a blockchain platform that directly connects advertisers and Internet users, allowing the latter to decide what information to reveal about themselves and thus earn on their search queries.
Wirex is a British although originally Russian startup which issues plastic and virtual debit cards that can be paid for by cryptocurrency and ordinary currency — US dollars, euros and pounds sterling (if one uses Bitcoin as an “in-between” currency when converting currencies, the exchange rate can, in theory, be more favorable than when converting at a bank or via online exchangers). The project raised $3 million in investments from the Japanese financial holding SBI Group. [source1], [source2]
Blockchain and Russian accelerators, incubators, funds and others
Russian Association of Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain
At the end of August 2017, the Advisor to the Russian President on Internet Development, Herman Klimenko, announced the launch of the Russian Association of Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain (RACB). [source]
RACB provides assistance in the dissemination and deep integration of blockchain technology into the country’s economy. Additionally, it is responsible for the coordination of business activities of the Association members, representation and protection of their common property interests, development and implementation of complexes of concerted activities related to the promotion of blockchain technology and services related to it in the Russian Federation and abroad.
Competence Center for Research on Blockchain technology
In October 2017, the first in Russia Competence Center for Research on Blockchain technology was planned to be open in Moscow. Its founders included Bank for Development and Foreign Affairs, Russian National University of Science and Technology, the Ethereum foundation, Exonum (platform of the BitFury company). Additionally, the involvement of the consulting firms Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers is planned. The amount of investment is forecasted for hundreds thousand of dollars. [source1], [source2]
Blockchain-consortium of Sberbank Factoring, Alfa-Bank, and M.Video
On October 13, 2017, the launch of a blockchain-consortium by Sberbank Factoring, Alfa-Bank and M.Video was announced. The consortium launched an open financial platform for factoring operations (financing suppliers for the assignment of their receivables), which allows to connect an unlimited number of suppliers and banks with the confidentiality of information about transactions. This will save millions of dollars by reducing the human factor. Thereby, the annual savings in using blockchain in factoring is predicted to be about $2.5–3.5 million per year. [source]
GenerationS accelerator
GenerationS is the largest federal accelerator for technology startups, in which the best projects, selected according to the results of a multi-stage expertise, receive intensive development and wide opportunities for raising investments. It has been run by the Russian Venture Company since 2013.
In 2016, there were 4237 applications from 30 countries submitted for participation in GenerationS. The prize fund in 2016 was $250,000, the total value of prizes from partners exceeded $1.7 million.
Among the specific tracks is FinTech which unites projects in the field of financial technologies, services and e-commerce and was launched for the first time in 2016. Blockchain technology is included in the categories of this track. [source]
Fintech Lab accelerator
Fintech Lab is an interbank accelerator for fintech startups. It unites a number of startups of financial technologies to work in a single space for developing technologies for financial institutions. Notable partners include Mastercard and Accenture (as a strategic adviser).
International Consortium R3 in Russia
R3 is an international consortium of financial companies which are involved in blockchain technology implementation in financial system. The total number of partner companies which have joined the R3 consortium to develop decentralized applications based on the Corda platform has reached 60. Notable partner companies include Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel and Microsoft.
With the plan of attracting more participants from Russia, R3 signed an agreement with the Russian accelerator for financial startups Fintech Lab which is involved in training startups for the Corda blockchain platform and its potential applications.
The goal of R3 is to provide access to the Corda platform for Russian developers and companies, including technical and business advice, training materials, and for Fintech Lab to act as the official representative of R3 and the Corda platform for financial institutions and other companies in Russia and the CIS. [source]
Corda is a blockchain platform for the banking sector that allows bank transactions, such as trade finance, to be carried out on the blockchain, with mechanisms for smart contracts, with an established distribution of roles in the transaction. [source]
ICO Lab Ecosystem and ICO Lab Fund
ICO Lab Ecosystem aka ICO Lab Company is an open, fully decentralized (Daap on Ethereum platform), and a collectively-managed ecosystem for startups, experts and investors. It fully covers the cycle of investing in innovative projects and helps prospective startups from all around the world to find financing, sponsors and employees.
The project was launched by the Russians Alex Fork (founder of Future Fintech) and investor Alexei Voronin, as well as British entrepreneurs Tim Campbell and Khazem Al Nakib. [source]
The ecosystem performs two functions, being simultaneously an accelerator for projects on the blockchain and a crowdfunding platform. Its two large subsystems are
- Funds (portfolios of tokens), where investors will invest
- Ecosystem services for the selection of the best projects, helping startups to run ICOs successfully, providing the necessary infrastructure for their post-ICO period
At the moment, ICO Lab Ecosystem is the only international company that can legally invest in cryptocurrency and startups through an affiliated organization in the US that has a license from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The tokens primary location is legally recognized only in the United States (on July 25th, ICO was equated to IPO). [source]
According to the idea of the founders, the ecosystem can become an exchange of experts and mentors, specialists in ICO, marketing and PR. [source]
ICO Lab fund is an investment fund that deals with investments in cryptocurrencies and through ICO, it is part of ICO Lab Ecosystem. It was launched in June 2017.
Future Fintech
Future Fintech is an international community of experts in the area of financial and blockchain technologies. Additionally, Future Fintech works with the selection and acceleration of fintech startups from Russia, CIS countries and Europe. It was launched in 2015 in Moscow as an accelerator, incubator and coworking for Russian fintech startups. [source]
Moscow R&D Lab
Moscow R&D Lab has the aim to support and implement blockchain projects in business and public administration. The organizer of the lab is the Blockchain Institute in partnership with the Waves Platform.
According to the project idea, the R&D Lab will implement a full cycle of system development — from planning the internal logic of the system to building its interface, giving priority to interdisciplinary research and experiments.
The Blockchain Institute aims to make a significant contribution to the development of Blockchain technology and facilitate its practical implementation.
Blockchain Founder incubator
Blockchain Founder is a 2-month incubator program for those who plan to lead or already run blockchain projects as a business founder or within the company and want to go from zero to pre-ICO in less than 2 months. The program is organized by the Department of Innovation Economics of the M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University. The program combines both technical aspects of blockchain technology (the basis of cryptography, smart contracts) and business applications (cryptocurrencies, ICO).
HSE{Inc} incubator
HSE {Inc} is a business incubator of the Moscow Higher School of Economics. One of the programs of the business incubator HSE {Pro} — Fintech is being implemented for projects of the early stages in the sphere of financial and blockchain technologies.
Confideal, a graduate of the second round of blockchain startups, is launching an ICO which will last until November 22. The goal is to raise about $20 million (70,000 ETH). Earlier, in October, during the closed pre-ICO, the project raised $650,000 from 70 investors.
