Ethereum will launch a blockchain research center in Russia’s counterpart of Silicon Valley, Skolkovo by partnering with Acronis data management company.

Ethereum and the Skolkovo Foundation announced plans to together open a special center for blockchain technology research and testing after the “Ethereum Russia 2016” conference in Skolkovo which was hosted by Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum platform. The conference witnessed attendees from QIWI payment processor, AlmazCapital venture fund, IBM, Waves, and Acronis.

Igor Bogachev, the Vice President of Skolkovo said during the announcement that, “The Skolkovo Foundation, in co-operation with Ethereum, will organize the selection and acceleration of promising projects and teams, and provide support to blockchain startups in the form of tax benefits and grants.” He added further that, “The development center will not only be able to satisfy the current demands of the state and business, but also the future ones: Internet of Things micropayments, complex smart contracts execution, creation of hybrid platforms and state registers of any kind.”

According to the report by the Russian VC.ru, Vitalik Buterin claimed that the Russian marker provides a large potential for Ethereum development as well as launch of new fintech projects. He said that, “Ethereum has already proven its functionality on the Global market, and now we are focused on expanding our presence and attracting Russian programmers to work on the Ethereum platform.”

With partnership with Acronis and Ethereum, the companies will be developing secure solution using blockchain platform for data transfer and storage. The companies have already launched a demo of the product.

Founder and CEO of Acronis, Serguei Beloussov taking about how blockchain technology will take to achieve the level says that, “The emergence of working solutions will allow people to truly realize the potential of blockchain in data protection applications.”

Ethereum company serves Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Barclays, JP Morgan and various international banks. The news of this launch is expected to be a sign of the cryptocurrencies finally moving into the legal field.