Is Russia ready to embrace blockchain in 2018?

Science & Tech
VICTORIA ZAVYALOVA
The year 2017 saw the rapid development of blockchain technology across the globe. In Russia, authorities plan to introduce the CryptoRuble, and the Moscow government is considering use of blockchain to ensure transparency in its voting system. But is the general public ready to embrace the change?

In December, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (PRUE), one of the first institutions in the country that introduced programs in cryptocurrency, conducted a survey to ascertain the general public's readiness to adopt blockchain.

The study found out that general sentiment toward blockchain is changing: Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are no longer perceived by the public as “an instrument for illegal transactions."

Smart contracts - self-executing agreements between a buyer and a seller written into lines of code - have played a significant role in this shift in public perception, according to Diana Stepanova, assistant professor at PRUE.

She believes blockchain can have a beneficial impact on a wide variety of industries, including healthcare. According to Stepanova, in a few years the blockchain technology could become an industrial standard.

In 2017, PRUE introduced the course, "Cryptocurrency Trading," which is taught by the co-founders of Token Finance, the Moscow-based investment holding. As a part of the project, students are educated on the principles of fundamental and technical analysis, methodology of trade, and investment portfolio.