How will Blockchain affect India? (Part 1)

Blockchain is a word not too often heard in the Indian context, neither Bitcoin is. But these two could influence India in a way that is often underestimated. It is not too long since I have understood its meaning and it did not take me long to infer its consequences for the economies all over the world, especially for India.

In the technical context, Blockchain is a distributed database that maintains a continuously-growing list of data records hardened against tampering and revision. In a somewhat simpler way, it is a public digital ledger system. (Ledger is a collection of financial records. You can digitally keep track of all the transactions.) The best part of using blockchain is its simple to use, embedded with all the useful information such as timestamp, and is highly secure.

Why do I think it is important for India? Because India is now moving towards a digital system, so why not start with getting the most basic quantity, money transactions, to be digital. Secondly people’s concerns about carrying huge amount of money will be solved with a single click.

There are many other problems which could be solved once we start using blockchain as the economic backbone. Some of them are listed below:

1. Timely salaries :- A blockchain transaction is not implemented until the system calls it valid. So it is good for both the receiving and sending parties. The sending party can call the transaction valid or invalid according to the service they receive. The receiving party could get the money instantly once the blockchain is implemented, and the transaction is said to be valid. The best use case could be companies which connect freelancers to companies. One company that is trying to do exactly this is LivelyGig, they have been solving the long time problem freelancers face which they call the “race to the bottom” problem in terms of both money and quality of work.
2. Security of transactions :- To be direct, blockchain gets more secure after every new transaction and is more secure than the current system or any other potential alternative. And people are still researching to make it one of the impossible to hack system. This is really great for the Indian economy as there are many instances of theft and indirect thefts from the bank account of the victims, which not only makes it a viable alternative but also an inevitable necessity. Since people won’t have to carry the cash to make a transaction, thefts and other such happenings could be stopped and people could start living peacefully rather than worrying about all their money.
3. Easy payments :- Secure payments could be made hassle-free no matter how big. This could fasten the way people do business or make payments. The online services could be made blockchain oriented so that people could actually feel secure about the payments done as that payment known the people involved and time of transaction could be tracked years, decades or even centuries later.
4. Privacy :- There comes a genuine feeling, that if that is a public ledger then one’s privacy would be at stake, but let me stress on the point that even though every transaction, no matter how small, is recorded on the blockchain, the identity of the person making it can be hidden if desired. This way, people could feel ultra secure, easy, and embedded with privacy at the same time.
5. Easy foreign investments :- Blockchain could make way for direct and hassle-free investments from foreign investors which could help increase the employment rates and the Indian economy. It could even make it easy for Indian inviduals to work as freelancers as they could direclty be compensated for their work as blockchain takes care of all the transactions.

Blockchain should therefore be viewed as a boon for the Indian economy which could come out like a revolution, a happy one, where people would stop worrying about money and could start living.

Though I have tried to cover the most direct consequences of blockchain in this post, there are still many left which will be covered in the subsequent posts. Part 2 of this series on blockchain, would be focused on the direct effects blockchain could have on the online businesses. Part 3 would be focused on its effects on freelancing marketplaces.

For more information about LivelyGig, visit :- LivelyGig

To know more about the technical aspects of Blockchain, visit :- Blockchain

To know about how Blockchain is used in a social network, visit :- Synereo

How do you think blockchain could potentially change India? What would be its long term effects? Share your thoughts below!