While bitcoin startups are worried about increased regulation in the US and the UK, these companies are starting to gain traction in Asia. In India, more people are buying bitcoin using Indian rupees to take advantage of potential changes in prices.
Others have also explored the advantages that bitcoin startups offer in merchant services, particularly those with online shops. According to Managing Director of Unocoin Sathvik Vishwanathan, users on the site have invested 25,000 rupees on average, although one can buy bitcoin for as low as 1,000 rupees.
Keeping Track of Bitcoin Startups
In the country, there have been approximately 53,000 downloads of bitcoin software over the past six years. Local bitcoin startups also estimate that there are a total of 80,000 bitcoin wallets opened to date.
While most of these transactions and services have been conducted through bitcoin startups in neighboring countries such as Singapore, a few bitcoin firms have been established in India itself. For instance, Searchcoin has been created by Vishal Gupta, who wanted to disrupt the present search industry paradigm and replace it with a more collaborative system that propagates wealth redistribution on the internet.
As for financial authorities, users should be aware of the risks involved when transacting using the cryptocurrency. The Reserve Bank of India has already issued a statement cautioning users, holders and traders of virtual currencies, including bitcoins, about the potential financial, operational, legal, customer protection and security-related risks that they are exposing themselves to.
In a paper entitled Bitcoins-A Global Perspective from Nishith Desai Associates law firm, bitcoin “per se are not illegal in India and this is in consonance with an international approach.” It adds that bitcoin creation and transfer are based on open source cryptographic protocol managed in a decentralized manner, and, if harnessed properly, bitcoin could deliver many benefits to the Indian economy.
Source : http://www.newsbtc.com/2015/05/04/bitcoin-startups-make-progress-in-india/
Click on the bitcoin logo below to buy, use or accept bitcoin. Unocoin is India’s most popular bitcoin wallet.
To read the bitcoin white paper, visit: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
