Bitcoin India

Jonathan Stacke - Bitcoin in India

bitcoinnews:

Jonathan Stacke writes on Bitcoin in India for his latest article on The Genesis Block (@TheGenesisBlock). Excerpts:

"With talk of inflation and capital controls familiar to the bitcoin community, one might think Indian citizens would be jumping at the opportunity to adopt the digital currency, yet the hurdles to wide-scale bitcoin proliferation in India may be significant for the foreseeable future. While demand for gold has grown in India, the multiple applications it offers culturally and industrially in addition to acting as an alternative store of wealth may mean that such demand does not translate to bitcoin."
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"[A correlation exists] between bitcoin adoption and internet penetration in a given country. India, with just 12.6% of its citizens having internet access, has the sixth lowest internet penetration of the 100 largest countries. Despite that fact, the size of the total Indian population – more than 1.2 billion – makes India the third largest internet-using population in the world, with 150 million users, behind only China and the US."
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"It is possible to buy and sell bitcoin through a number of websites including buysellbitco.in and there does appear to be a healthy LocalBitcoins market."
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"Not to be overlooked is India’s mobile phone penetration of 71%, or approximately 900 million total users. […] only 44 million Indians are smartphone subscribers."
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"M-PESA, the mobile payment system that has changed the lives of millions in Kenya recently rolled out in India. […] If mobile payment systems like these gain traction in India as they have in Africa, acceptance of digital currency would prove to be a less significant hurdle."
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"India had the highest remittance volume in the world in 2011 with $58 billion, or 3.1% of GDP, according to the World Bank."
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"Forward-thinking companies like Buttercoin have recently stepped in to apply the potential of bitcoin to these markets […]"
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"The Reserve Bank of India has stated that it does not immediately intend to regulate bitcoin, but their historic actions indicate that may change soon enough […]"

 - https://thegenesisblock.com/bitcoin-in-india-drivers-and-barriers-to-adoption
 - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=288709.0 (Further discussion of this article)

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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.

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