The Russian corporation Rostec, stated it will be decreasing the spending on blockchain development this year by at least 50 percent. following the latest reports, we find out more about it in today’s blockchain latest news.According to the Russian corporation, the organization plans to spend up to 28.4 billion rubles or $453 million in USD on the development of blockchain technologies in Russia by 2024 but instead of the 55 billion to 85 billion rubles. The news came in the reports of the nation’s news outlet Kommersant earlier today. Rostec explained that the introduction of blockchain technology into the product labeling system will need up to 650 million rubles, getting it into the healthcare system will require 1.17 billion rubles of which 575 will be allocated to the pharmaceuticals tracking systems. The implementation of blockchain technology in the housing will require a stunning 475 million rubles.Rostec revised the initial plan of the potential direct and indirect economic effect that the blockchain development can have in the country where the earlier versions of the roadmap showed a lot more investments in the technology. The bad forecast of the economic effects is heavily related to the change in the macroeconomic situation. The spokesperson from the corporation also explained that there’s a huge change in the perception of the technology ‘’a self-cleaning of the market from copy projects that do not have a development strategy and a certain market niche’’ while the market in Russia is developing pretty smoothly and is choosing the path for less risky development.The corporation sent the document to the Ministry of Communications and the Analytical Center for the government of Russia and now waits for approval. The move came right when the new Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin who called on the country to prioritize the development of the digital economy. In the meantime, Russia implemented a lot of projects and even last month the national energy grid operator Rosetti started testing blockchain solutions for payments in the sector. The project aims to automate and conduct transactions between energy producers, consumers, and suppliers and to make it much more transparent. The mining giant in Russia Nornickel also started testing its platform for digital metal tokens in collaboration with Trafigura Group Ltd.

According to a new report from the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iran’s government is allegedly creating a policy that will benefit the cryptocurrency miners in the country, by granting them over 1,000 licenses. In our latest cryptocurrency news, we take a closer look at what this could mean for the nation.Iran’s Government and other countries throughout the globe, make noticeable advances in regulating the cryptocurrency sector, concretely in the sphere of the supervision of the cryptocurrency mining industry.   One of the most important news this week was a report that the Islamic Republic of Iran had given over 1,000 crypto mining licenses to cryptocurrency firms in the country. The vastly represented firms in the ones that got the licenses are large cryptocurrency mining farms that are the only ones at this moment to bear the huge electricity costs.The news comes from an official from ICT Guild Organization, Amir Hossein Saeedj Naeini. According to him, the cryptocurrency mining industry in the country is still young, while there is the belief held by many that the country has huge potential, which is attracting a huge number of people to Iran But to be mining cryptocurrencies in a legal way, every existing and new miner must hold an official license. According to Amir Hossein Saeedj Naeini:

 “The Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade has issued more than 1,000 licenses for cryptocurrency mining in the country.”

Additionally, he also noted that the cryptocurrency mining industry has the potential to generate another $8.5 billion to the economy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, according to a certain new government study. But there are certain obstacles in achieving the goal, with the biggest being the high electricity costs that are facing miners in the country. As is wildly known a lot of computing power and electricity is needed for cryptocurrency mining. This is a huge obstacle and challenge for crypto miners in the Islamic Republic of Iran because only big firms can have the luxury to work, while smaller enterprises are forced to close.

 “High electricity tariffs plus stringent regulations have made the sector less appealing for small investors.”

Besides this the official from the ICT Guild Organization, Amir Hossein Saeedj Naeini noted that more discussions will be held in order favorable conditions are found for the cryptocurrency mining industry.

A couple of crypto and blockchain firms are now pitching in to help victims of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China. Today, the Binance news also showed that the exchange pledged to donate 10 million Chinese yuan ($1.44 million) to the effort.A tweet on January 25 by the head of the exchange Changpeng Zhao said that Binance made the pledge but did not make any announcements after a Twitter user tagged him in a news article where they talked about cryptocurrency donations accepted for the cause.

“For #Wuhan, not realistic to do crypto to end beneficiaries. Binance pledged 10m RMB ($1.5m USD) to help #coronavirus victims. We didn’t make any announcements. But [Binance Charity Foundation] BCF/Binance team has been busy for the last few days. Still need help to arrange logistics locally,” he said.

The initiative of many crypto and blockchain firms trying to help the victims has been praised by many in the crypto news world.According to a WeChat post by the blockchain marketing service firm Krypital , the firm also launched a charity donation effort to acquire medical supplies for the coronavirus victims. Krypital also said that it will create a blockchain based donation system which allows for greater transparency and efficiency. The firm also accepts Tether (USDT) on the Ethereum blockchain.Krypital also said that they are recruiting volunteers for group administration, as well as material purchases, sorting and transportation management. They are also hiring graphic designers and are in the media with a lot of announcements. According to analysts, many other crypto and blockchain firms will take this initiative as inspiration to commit to the coronavirus cases.As the media reported, Bitcoin (BTC) slumped 6% on the Chinese New Year and a lot of uncertainty surrounding the spread of the virus. On January 26, Fox News said that the current death toll of the virus is 56.Today, we can see a good influx of capital in the cryptocurrency market  as Bitcoin comes closer to $8,500. The altcoin news also show new increases as Ethereum (ETH) rises to $164 and XRP is stable at $0.2239 again. The biggest gainer is Bitcoin Cash (BCH) which surged by 9% and is now trading at $336.The total cryptocurrency market cap is at $233 billion and finally moving above the $230 billion mark.

Contradicting reports that a closing down is considered for the accounts of cryptocurrency exchanges in the country, the well-known South African bank, Nedbank is not up to this as we are reading more about it the latest cryptocurrency news today.According to the SACrypto, a South African cryptocurrency news media, the reports that Nedbank has plans to close down bank accounts of cryptocurrency exchanges are not true. Speaking about the issue, the CEO of AltcoinTrader, the well known South African cryptocurrency exchange platform said:

“I commented in the IT Web article about Nedbank closing crypto accounts. But I believe it has turned into media hype. The reality is: Nedbank is no longer taking on new accounts for crypto-related companies, but they are not closing current accounts.”

As it was reported in a previous occasion by DC Forecasts FNB closed down accounts that were linked to cryptocurrency exchanges in November of 2019. But stakeholders at a major South African cryptocurrency exchange claim that the friendly Nedbank that is among the big five in South Africa does not have plans about adopting policies of that kind.On Friday, January 24, 2020, the South African tech publication ITWeb had reported that Nedbank will probably follow the actions of FNB in closing the accounts of the cryptocurrency exchanges. According to ITWeb, officials from Nedbank told the tech publication that the bank was in the process of internal discussions on how to act towards their clients from the cryptocurrency sector. With the reports about the searching ways to withdraw support for cryptocurrency exchange platforms by the banks in South Africa, the people involved in the industry are asking the government for the faster enacting of clear cryptocurrency regulation in the nation.In December of 2019, there were reports that the South African government had the intention to enact new laws to regulate the cryptocurrency market. This new regulation will mainly focus on regulating the use of cryptocurrencies in illegal money transfers. The government in South Africa has remained limited to be tax compliant and to track crypto transactions and bitcoin is still popular in the country as the data from Google trends shows. Bitcoin’s popularity in South Africa made the country the perfect climate for elaborate scams as well.