India is a country with a good amount of smartphone and technology penetration. Traditionally, India has been the back office for most of the multinational companies owing to its time zone advantage, cheap and skilled labor and diligent technical skills. With the recent outburst of cheap and affordable smartphones in India, there has been a good amount of smartphone penetration leading most of the upcoming Indian e-commerce startups to go completely app-based rather than investing much on the traditional website. India is potentially one of the countries where with a good amount of adoption, Bitcoin volumes can inflate exponentially. However, the Reserve Bank of India has had a neutral standpoint towards the digital currencies. RBI has stated that they are not regulating Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies yet and would like to observe and understand the technology better before adoption. However, Bitcoin businesses in India have filed a petition to make Bitcoin legal. Let’s dive into the details of the petition and the impending effects.
Bitcoin booms in India
While Bitcoin transactions in India initially were considerably low, Bitcoin mining activity has been very high since 2012. GB Miners group have 9% hashing power of the Bitcoin network, paralleling their western counterparst, making them the largest Bitcoin mining group in the country. With the Indian Government’s demonetization move, the country was forced to go cashless and this saw a rise in Bitcoin transactions and Bitcoin prices. The demonetization ended at the start of 2017, but the effects are still persistent with lower cash withdrawals being observed at banks and ATMs. This has built the required momentum for Bitcoin adoption in India.
The petition
The petition comes at a time when Bitcoin is making regional headlines due to statements from policymakers and politicians who have raised concerns about the lack of regulation surrounding the bitcoin industry. As the government is sticking to the hands off approach, big players in the Indian bitcoin industry who welcome regulation have banded together to launch a self-regulatory body to ensure adherence to KYC and AML norms called The Digital Asset and Blockchain Foundation of India (DABFI). DABFI has launched a petition calling for the explicit legality of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the country. Their main motive is to develop an amicable environment for the development of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
What can India do to Bitcoin?
India is the second most populated country in the world relying heavily on micropayments. This is especially true for the small scale and medium industries that play a vital role in the country’s economy. With sustained adoption, Indian Bitcoin adoption can be a game changer for the cryptocurrency. Unlike China where the Bitcoin is only now a speculative vehicle, India can do justice to the true stature of Bitcoin and nurture the currencies through large scale adoption and eventually using its massively brilliant technical force for Bitcoin engineering. The verdict for Bitcoin’s legality in India might be set sometime in April. How the Indian government’s judgment would impact Bitcoin is to be seen.
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