Rosatom to sue AtomMoney for crypto-currency mining

Bitcoin is a digital currency created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto as an alternative to standard currencies. Source: Reuters

The Rosatom state corporation is to sue the creators of the AtomMoney website for using its brand to attract cybermoney, the company has announced in an official press release.

"The said website invites users to make cybermoney by allowing their computers to be used for the purposes of 'calculating the state corporation's thermonuclear reactions.' The AtomMoney website is using Rosatom's logo unlawfully. Statements posted on its homepage are false," the company said.

Visitors to the AtomMoney website, which was launched in late 2013, are invited to download a special software for Windows, which will be making the advertised calculations. In exchange, volunteers who are ready "to assist in the development of the Russian nuclear industry" are promised a monthly salary of $200.

According to Roem.ru, users' computers were used for mining cryprocurrencies, for example bitcoins.

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Bitcoin is a digital currency created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto as an alternative to standard currencies. After the bitcoin rate hit a new height of $675 on November 18, 2013, the public and governments alike began to take notice of digital currencies.

Some countries, like the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Singapore, have already legalized the use of crypto-currencies on their territories. In Russia, their status at the official level still remains uncertain.

For instance, in December 2013 Sberbank CEO German Gref told journalists that in theory Russia's biggest retail bank did not rule out the issue of a virtual currency, similar to bitcoin, on the basis of Yandex.Money. The matter is under consideration.

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