Boris Titov, the Russian business ombudsman and billionaire politician, is creating a new initiative for entrepreneurs and growing companies, hosted on the Waves blockchain.

Whilst there have been a large number of crowdfunding success stories in the blockchain space in recent months, with multiple eight-figure raises, the goal of this project — called 'People of Growth' — is to help companies in the real economy to leverage the benefits of ICOs. This new financial instrument allows them to raise money in cryptocurrency for their projects, from supporters all over the world, regardless of the sector in which they operate.

The cooperation between Titov and Waves began 6 months ago, when the Upcoin token was launched as an engagement tool for the Party of Growth, for which Titov is chairman. Partiya Rosta is a minority political party with a strong base of grassroots activists. Upcoin, a token hosted on the Waves network, was integrated into a loyalty programme that rewarded supporters for their work for the party.

Upcoin has the distinction of being the world's first ever blockchain social project, signalling new directions for blockchain applications. Now, this involvement has been extended to a new level with the creation of People of Growth. Whilst traditional loans are typically expensive and difficult to secure in Russia, businesses have proven interested in ICOs as a promising new vehicle for raising seed funding and to accelerate the launch of new business ideas.

'We're really happy to sign this agreement with Boris,' explains Waves CEO Sasha Ivanov. 'It's a fantastic opportunity to push blockchain adoption to a far wider community than the traditional crypto crowd, which of course has always been our vision for Waves. We always intended to be "Blockchain for the people" and this is another great step forward in that direction.'