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Future of Bitcoin In India

No one can predict the future of bitcoin in India, but in this article with some facts we will study bitcoin’s past and present in India so can we able to do a reasonable prediction for the future of bitcoin in India and try to visualize what benefits India can get because of bitcoin and crypto-currencies.

I for business
Coinmonks
Published in
7 min readSep 4, 2020

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May we all know In 2009, bitcoin started, but bitcoin took almost 4 years to get in the Indian market and in this article, we will go year wise to experience the bitcoin journey in India so ladies and gentleman fasten your seat belt for a roller coaster ride.

Year: 2011–2012

Bitcoin entered India somewhere around 2011 and 2012 where people started bitcoin transactions. For example, an old article by Pritam P Hans has described how Mahin Gupta, a 30-year-old software developer in Ahmedabad, collaborated with an Australian company to create a platform named as buysellbitco.in which based on a digital currency called bitcoin and in 2011–12 there are only 2,000 active Bitcoin users in India {Reference}.

Year:2013

In that year lots of investors started focusing on the bitcoin and the number of bitcoin wallets download has spiked to 35,648 in India {Reference}, A vintage-themed pizzeria in Mumbai’s Worli area, became the first restaurant in the country to accept Bitcoin {Reference}, and this year bitcoin gained the attention of RBI (Reserve Bank of India) so RBI had published a press release to cautions users of Virtual Currencies against Risks {Reference}.

Year:2014

After the RBI’s press release, many Indian crypto exchanges, including buysellbitco.in forced to shut their business but after a few days when the deputy governor of the RBI concede that “it was the bank’s job to regulate digital currencies” then one exchange named as Unocoin back into operation {Reference, Reference-2}, as Mt. Gox got hacked in 2014 some intellectual people of India guess, that maybe investors of India have lost their bitcoins and I guess for sure some Indian investors suffered because of Mt.Gox falls but still, the love of Indians towards bitcoin never decreased {Reference} because after watching the growing numbers of the Indian bitcoin investors Reserve Bank Governor of India said: “India will adopt digital currencies at some point” {Reference}, and Mumbai-based headrush become the first Indian adventure sports firm to accept bitcoins {Reference}.

Year:2015

Till 2015, the number of cryptocurrency investors increased by lacs and some new startups like Zebpay has started their services {Reference}, South Indian bank accepted that cryptocurrency like bitcoin are the future {Reference}, and the best thing happened in 2015 is the business tycoon Ratan Tata invested in a digital currency startup Abra {Reference}.

Year:2016

2016 was the luckiest year for bitcoin in India because this year some cryptocurrencies startups not only get recognition but also raised millions of funds, for example- Unocoin raised 1.5million, Coinsecure raised 1.2million and Zebpay raised 1million{Reference-1, 2, 3}.

Demonetization played an important role in bitcoin popularity gain inside the country {Reference} and eight startups based on blockchain has started in our country {Reference}.

Year:2017

We all know this is the historical year for the bitcoin where it touched $20000, even if there had been so many negative news about bitcoin in India for example- the finance minister said “bitcoin is not legal tender in India” {Reference} and income tax department of India conducted raids at nine bitcoin exchanges in India but these negative pieces of news had not affected the affection of Indians towards bitcoin {Reference}.

In 2017 there are so many local businesses started accepting bitcoin payment, for example- a Bangalore restaurant started accepting payment in bitcoin {Reference}, and on 9th December 2017 in an Indian wedding, both braid and groom asked their guests to give bitcoin as a wedding gift which happened just after the 3rd warning from India’s central bank against buying bitcoins {Reference}.

Year:2018

That was a very tough year for Indian bitcoin investors because this year RBI banned every bank in India to deal with bitcoin {Reference}, this year bearish market hit very hard which affected exchange like Zebpay to shut their services {Reference}, and we faced India’s biggest bitcoin theft where worth Rs 19 crore of bitcoin stolen from Coinsecure.

But some good incidents kept us on the track like India’s first cryptocurrency ATM launched {Reference} but unfortunately it shut by Bangalore police {Reference}, news came out that Reliance Jio and India planned to launch its own cryptocurrency {Reference-1,2}.

Year:2019

This year Indian cryptocurrencies investors are still struggling not only with the bearish market but also with the Indian RBI banking ban. India was still uncleared with cryptocurrency that whether this was legal or illegal and the Indian government came up with a cryptocurrency draft bill to ban crypto in India {Reference}, then a legal war started between crypto lovers and crypto haters in India.

In between this unsuitable situation, the Indian government also releases some strict laws like 10 years of jail and fine for Indian crypto Investors {Reference}, but it has no effect on the mindset of Indian investors.

Year:2020

2020 is the present scenario of bitcoin in India, and the war between crypto lovers and heaters that started back in 2018 has won by crypto lovers {Reference}. Now RBI will not stop you from dealing in cryptocurrency with banks, and we entered the bull market where bitcoin price is now trading over $10000. But in India a rumor again started that Indian government tries to pass one more bill to ban crypto in India {Reference}, but according to me, this will not affect the bitcoin supporters because since 2013 the Indian government wants to ban bitcoin in India but they haven’t able to ban bitcoin and I believe on the bitcoin community which getting stronger every day so even if Indian government will ban it then we will again fight to remove the ban as we fought since last two years.

Some theories that India will legalize Bitcoin

Theory-1: India is a democratic country where ‘the Govt of the people by the people for the people’ which means if people want then they can fight to implement or remove any law {Reference}. A law before implement it comes in the form of a bill and we can submit a petition against the bill as we did with the last RBI ban and we will win for sure because we already did that {Reference}.

Theory-2: USA is the most influential country in the world which means other countries follow USA and they change their law, regulations, business tactics according to USA and India is a country who closely follows USA and if you don’t know then let me tell you that India has borrowed some rule for the Indian constitution from the USA constitution {Reference}. And now US banks are allowed to offer crypto custody services, which is a big thing for the crypto world, and India may take a lesson from the US to provide crypto custody services in India.

What benefits India can get if bitcoin becomes legal?

When bitcoin will legal it means all the cryptocurrencies will be legal in India, which will affect good to our financial system first, for example- In India 190 millions of people are still unbanked and India has the highest numbers of inactive bank accounts because the current financial system needs KYC to open an account and location-based service which is still unreachable by millions of peoples so they can get involved in bitcoin to start their own bank within a few minutes from any locations and can benefit from Defi (Decentralized finance), India losing huge money in the form of transaction fees/ late fees/ zero balance fee/ different charges {Reference}, etc which can get saved because of bitcoin and cryptos {Reference-1,2}, India spending huge efforts, fees and time for abroad money transfer and check pass which can get saved because of bitcoin and cryptos, and India can fight with corruption and duplication with more efficiently {Reference-1,2}, etc.

Conclusion

If you studied this article deep, then one thing you may realize that from the beginning Govt wants to ban bitcoin in India and created so many negative situations to separate bitcoin lovers from bitcoin but bitcoin investors from India never lost their love, hope, and faith over bitcoin which decide the future of bitcoin in India I mean bitcoin is the money of people and the people of India support it very well so who cares about haters and these bitcoin lovers will decide the future of bitcoin and other cryptos in India.

About the author:

Name- Jitendra naik

Email- jitencrackit2@gmail.com

Also, Read

Bitcoin
Bitcoin In India
Future Of Bitcoin India
Bitcoin Future

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I for business
Coinmonks

Written by I for business

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Hey guys! this is Jiten, I'm a true blockchain lover who love to spread awarness of blockchain technology among world

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