Rise of blockchain can bring “ache din”!
I have been in the blockchain space for almost 2 years and have seen the technology gain popularity in the country. The time when I first read about Bitcoin and Blockchain, there were only a handful of people talking about this technology, and only a few startups were working in this domain. The people who were aware of the blockchain technology were mostly into trading and mining.
Some of the startups which existed in early 2017 were Primechain, the company that formed the consortium of banks called Bankchain; DLT Labs, which provided blockchain based solutions (a service company); Coinsecure, bitcoin exchange platform; EzyRemit, providing easy remittances built on a blockchain platform; and Unocoin, bitcoin wallet and exchange platform (one of the earliest exchanges to provide liquidity exchange in India). Besides this, the only company that I found researching extensively on the technology was Mahindra Group.
As the year went by, the blockchain technology picked up momentum in the country and people started getting interested in the technology. There was a sudden rush of ICOs happening around the world and Indians were actively taking part in it. The hype was so much that Indian market at one point in past year contributed to one tenth of the total global transactions. People started getting curious about the technology and wanted to learn more. There was a sudden rush within the industry to explore blockchain.
As on one side, the market was growing fonder of the technology, our governments also started catching up. Andhra Pradesh was one such state which took the limelight. One of the most tech-savvy chief ministers of India, Mr. C.B.Naidu, took the plunge and decided to build Amravati, the new capital of Andhra Pradesh with a greater role of blockchain technology. The state is now using blockchain to register plots of land. Besides this, the governments of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh are also using blockchain technology for land registries. Even the Karnataka government is now exploring blockchain to support e-governance. Uttarakhand government has also been in news due to possible tie ups with a startup to implement blockchain in the healthcare industry. Out of all the states, Rajasthan has been silently exploring and implementing this technology. It is the first state in the country to implement blockchain technology in e-governance. Their Bhamashah scheme is based on this technology. The Bhamashah ID tracks every person’s health records, the government benefits and electronic records. All of this is based on a blockchain and it can be accessed only after the consent of the person. So far Rajasthan is beating everyone hands down in the implementation of this technology.
Our central government’s think tank, NITI Aayog, is also not far behind. They have been extensively researching on the technology and researching on use cases. The first Proof of Concept (POC) they plan to work on is digital certification for colleges. The plan is to issue the degree certificates from 2019 onwards for IIT Bombay and a few colleges of Delhi University. They have, recently partnered with a fertilizer company to bring fertilizer subsidy on a decentralised platform. To fight the growing pollution, NITI Aayog is looking to leverage blockchain in waste management. Their approach will be to incentivise people through tokens to encourage recycling.
Indian industries are also not far behind in exploring this wonderful decentralised technology. The first industry to enter this space was the banking industry with a consortium called Bank Chain in 2016. In 2017, the insurance industry made a consortium and the first POC they were looking at was KYC on a blockchain platform. This year 7 of the leading banks including Axis, ICICI, IndusInd, RBL, Mahindra, South Indian and Yes Bank partnered with Infosys to set trade finance process on a blockchain. Mahindra Group, Bajaj Electricals and Hero MotoCorp have decided to implement blockchain in a vendor management system on blockchain technology. This platform will have approx 2 billion transactions in a year. As I mentioned earlier, Mahindra was one of the firsts to explore this technology. Mahindra and IBM, are working on a POC for supply chain financing and are working on bringing consortium databases to the country in association with ChromaWay.
This technology has the power to bring “achhe din” in this country. The blockchain technology can disrupt different processes in various fields, omit the job of a middle man, and bring in greater transparency. Currently, the Aadhar database is in a centralised system which can be hacked. Also, the database is centrally controlled and the power being with the government. Bringing such data on a decentralized database system such as blockchain will make our data more secure, and give us the freedom to share our personal details as per our will. Another important problem that this technology can address is transparency in the public distribution system. Today, we all hear and read the news about government scams. Scams in which government officials are caught for embezzling the money. If the amount allocations for various schemes or projects is done on a blockchain it will not only make the process transparent but also reduce corruption. We can bring the tender system on a blockchain and give fair chance to all the companies/individuals applying for a tender a fair chance to compete. Another amazing use case of this technology is bringing the voting system on a blockchain platform. Quite a few governments around the world are working on this use case. If we bring the voting system on to a blockchain it will make the process transparent and tamper proof. Blockchain has gained a lot of traction in the last couple of months. This technology has the power to give back the power to us. We soon will have government institutions and schemes running on blockchain which will benefit the marginalised people.
Though the blanket ban on cryptocurrency by Central Bank has put a roadblock in this progress. But the central government has already made a draft regulations for the same and if it is implemented, the ban would probably be lifted by September. We as a nation should be looking right now to educate ourselves about this technology and evangelize on how it can solve the problems the nation is facing today. If the regulations are favourable we might soon have a blockchain unicorn from the country. Nowadays, on an average 100 ICOs are happening per month. We are working on a product which will benefit institutional and retail investors to separate the genuine ICO from the fake one. At the same time, this product will help investors track their investments. If you are interested in knowing more about the product, please sign up and be the first one to test the product. Also, if you have any questions or a different view about this technology, please do write to me.
