Russian bitcoin exchange makes its source code public

A defunct Russia-based bitcoin exchange has recently released its source code to the bitcoin community, while the country is gearing up to crackdown the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

The exchange took to the Bitcoin Talk forum and Reddit to make the announcement and said that it seeks to help the global bitcoin industry evolve by letting other companies to incorporate its software.

The platform was founded by three members through self-funding and spending nearly $100,000 to reach an alpha version. However, confronted with Russia's rising hostile regulatory environment, they decided to discard their launch and make their work public instead. 

"The bitcoin community is open source at its core and we wanted to contribute somehow. Giving away our source code turned out to be the logical step to show our love to the community. The bitcoin ecosystem needs to reunite at these times more than ever before." Project manager Ivan Starinin told CoinDesk.