Page 23 - bne magazine September 2023

bne September 2023 Companies & Markets I 23
Budorin also mentioned the possibility of hackers deriving keys from the transaction data of Atomic’s users or exploiting vulnerabilities in the wallet manufacturer’s infrastructure.
In a June 20 blogpost, Atomic Wallet finally provided an update to its clients and reiterated its claim that “less than 0.1%” of app users had been affected by the heist – a claim ridiculed by many clients online.
In the post, the firm didn’t say what had caused the breach but laid out four of the most “probable” causes, including a virus on user devices, an infrastructure breach, a man-in-the- middle attack or malware code injection.
The use by Russians of cryptocurrencies has exploded since the war with Ukraine started.
Crypto is being used by many ordinary Russian citizens who
Kazakhstan’s tech success shows way out of raw resources addiction
Almaz Kumenov for Eurasianet
Alaqan, an IT company based in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, is imagining a whole new way to pay for goods and services.
No more cards or smartphones, company founder Berik Nurymbetov told Eurasianet.
Alaqan’s brainchild is a piece of tech that will be able to recognise the pattern of veins in the palms of payers’ hands.
By passing their hands over a special sensor, users of the system will be able to gain access to buildings or pay for goods in stores.
“This could be the future universal form of biometric identification,” Nurymbetov said.
Nurymbetov, 38, who worked for many years as the head of IT in several large companies, said this technology is a major improvement over existing biometric recognition systems. Fingerprints, for example, can be difficult to read if a person’s hands are dirty or wet. Low lighting or makeup hinder
are desperate to hang on to their savings inside a financial sector which is being choked by sanctions and the collapse of the ruble.
Russian financiers and ordinary Muscovites familiar to this journalist have been using cryptocurrency exchanges, such as Binance and Yobit, since the invasion began in order to circumvent sanctions and move their money overseas.
While the $1 trillion cryptocurrency market is simply not big enough to provide relief to the embattled Russian state, it has proven an effective mechanism to fund raise for pro-Russian groups and for individuals to store money.
“There has been a significant increase in crypto usage since the war,” added Feldman. “A lot of people left the country and are using cryptocurrencies to transfer and store funds.”
In its advertising, Alaqan asks "Which biometrics are right for you?" Its payment technology recognises the unique pattern of veins in a buyer's hand. / alaqan.com
facial recognition. The pattern of a person’s palm, while also unique, does not change throughout life, even when they have sustained an injury, Nurymbetov said.
Alaqan, whose name is derived from the Kazakh word for palm, began selling its product in 2021. Medical clinics, airports, and educational institutions are among its first clients.
“For example, students at a school where our system works pay for their lunch with a wave of their hand. The money is debited from their father or mother’s card,” Nurymbetov said.
Nurymbetov is eager to note that all the data handled by Alaqan is safely encrypted and stored in servers inside Kazakhstan and that his company has passed information security audits required by the government.
Alaqan is far from alone in leading Kazakhstan’s innovative embrace of tech. Digital solutions to daily problems are increasingly becoming the norm rather than the exception.
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