The publisher of the British newspapers The Independent and Evening Standard and former owner of Russia’s National Standard Bank, Alexander Lebedev, is launching a new cryptocurrency venture. Sergey Mendeleev, co-founder, and CEO of the decentralized finance (DeFi) firm, InDeFi, announced at the Blockchain Life conference in Moscow that the company intends to launch a ruble-backed stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain. According to Sergey Mendeleev, the idea has nothing to do with the digital ruble issued by the Bank of Russia. MakerDAO’s DAI Algorithmic Stablecoin Cryptocurrency rubles will be issued by a decentralized smart contract with over-collateralization, following the example of MakerDAO’s DAI algorithmic stablecoin. In the MakerDAO system, individuals may borrow DAI and lock Ether in a smart contract. The Ether collateral kept in the smart contract lockup serves as security for the loans. Last year, Lebedev and Mendeleev introduced InDeFi, a service that offers loans in stablecoins. Former KGB officer Lebedev lost favor with President Vladimir Putin’s administration in 2008 when an article he owned in a minor Russian newspaper claimed that Putin had an affair with Olympic champion gymnast Alina Kabaeva. Lebedev failed in his endeavors in publishing and finance. DeFi Protocol Encounters Problems The increase in speculators looking for ETH loans to boost their chances of winning forked Ether Proof-of-Work (ETHPoW) toke...
