Benson Samuel - Bitcoin In India?
Benson Samuel (@BensonSamuel) blogs on Bitcoin from Bangalore. His latest post introduces his readers to the Bitcoin ecosystem and describes some of the opportunities and challenges for Bitcoin in India, specifically. Excerpts:
Several new exchanges are being setup for India, and it is only a matter of time, before we can have a robust environment supporting Bitcoins in an open marketplace.
Several Indians participate in forums on Tor and have started engaging in open discussions about betterment and open business.
As long as there is prohibition of an item of need or desire, there will remain a Black Market. As long as this continues, Bitcoin will have value and will continue to grow. Bitcoin will replace or become the main currency in lands where modern banking has failed. It will remain a steadfast channel of alternative commerce where the need is.
Inspired Indians have taken up the challenge to reshape the way we have banked for decades.
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Mondato - Underground Remittances
bitcoin:
In a newsletter from Mondato (@MondatoPortal) is an article on how underground money transfer networks are subverting central authorities as well as the traditional financial system. Excerpts:
As mobile penetration continues to grow exponentially, even in restrictive economies such as North Korea and Iran, underground value transfer may soon find a new vehicle – the mobile phone.
Newly emergent virtual currencies like Bitcoin have the capacity to fly beneath government regulations, opening alternate channels for subversive money transfer.
The international community may be powerless to stop the emergence of Bitcoin, particularly in contexts such as North Korea, Somalia, or Iran where there is demand for alternative monetary systems.
Bitcions will become more global once Coinapult expands their SMS Wallet capability beyond the U.S. and Canada. With that, bitcoins can be sent to any mobile phone with SMS text messaging. Compared to mobile transfer systems like M-PESA, fees for bitcoin transfers are trivially small.
Coinapult’s SMS text messaging wallet might have limited potential as a subversive tool, however. Unlike native Bitcoin transactions, Coinapult’s approach is dependent on the mobile phone network. This leaves it vulnerable to disruption by the authorities who control the network and could block messages send to or from Coinapult. Additionally, text messaging is not a secure communications protocol and there might be no method that would protect against a dishonest person who has access to the telecom operator’s systems.
The article’s accompanying infographic shows the scope of remittances including those to nations where there are restrictions.
Previous Posts - Twitter: @BItcoindia
Another BTC/INR Market Opens - Free Trading
Bitcoin-Central.net is an exchange that has been operating since 2010, which is long in the tooth as far as Bitcoin exchanges go. The exchange recently added a INR deposit method and operates a BTC/INR market — the second exchange to now serve those wishing to buy and sell Bitcoins with the rupee.
Bitcoin-Central exchange has no trading fees. Adding funds to the exchange account involves sending a bank wire transfer to the exchange’s bank account with ICICI (fee applies). Withdrawal to any bank in India is available as well (fee applies).
Support from the exchange is available by e-mail from: [email protected]
The exchange offers either Google or Yubikey multifactor authentication methods which can lessen the security risks significantly compared to transacting against exchanges without these methods.
Support fort the INR currency was just recently added so if the market follows the pattern that other new markets followed then first will appear some bids and offers that are far apart (a wide spread). Then sporadic trades will likely occur before the market starts to function with competitive offers on one or both sides and eventually an efficient market becomes the result.
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TradeHill - Bank Transfer - India / INR Funds, Then Buy Bitcoins
The first Bitcoin exchange to accept deposits using funds using a domestic bank transfer from any Indan bank is TradeHill.
Along with becoming the first exchange to offer the ability to buy bitcoins with India / INR bank transfers, the exchange also was the first to accept bank transfers for Chile / CLN and Peru / PEN. The exchange also accepts international USD bank transfers as well.
The exchange also provides a number of bitcoin cash out methods, including withdrawing to PayPal, to Amazon Payments, or to virtual instruments such as prepaid debit Mastercards, gift cards and game cards.
- TradeHill web site
- Article on Bitcoin wiki
- Overview on Bitcoin Money
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