Cryptocurrency and Blockchain: How can it change India?

The world is evolving at an expeditious speed, so is the world of money and business. The up to the minute development is money in the form of cryptocurrency. A cryptocurrency is a form of digital or virtual currency created to work as a medium of exchange. Cryptography is used to carry out and verify transactions. The creation of new units of a particular cryptocurrency is also controlled. Collectively, cryptocurrencies are finite entries in a database that no one can modify unless specific conditions are fulfilled.

Introduction
Market Size and Overview
Scope of Cryptocurrency
Growth and Future of Cryptocurrency in India
Conclusion

Introduction

Blockchain is irrefutably an inspired invention – originated from a person or group of people known by the alias, Satoshi Nakamoto. In the easiest way, blockchain can be understood as a time-stamped series of inflexible records of data that is managed by a cluster of computers rather than any single entity, every single block of data is secured and bound to each other using cryptographic principles. This forms a blockchain.

Market Size and Overview

Bitcoin holds the paramount supremacy in the cryptocurrency market with around 45% of market share & a massive market capitalization of $142.2 Billions  (Rs  9.25  Trillion).  Altcoins, is the term used for other cryptocurrencies which includes other 1550 currencies that are traded.

India’s crawl into the cryptocurrency market coincided with 2017’s massive spike in prices, when 1 Bitcoin became worth $20,000 in valuation. The immense popularity and massive movement, caught the attention of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the government, leading to an official warning in December 2017, with the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley confirming that the government did not see Bitcoin, or any other cryptocurrency, as legal tender.

Soon after the dazzling start, came the downfall. From a whooping 15,000 units per day towards the end of 2017, cryptocurrency trade in India lost almost 90% hitting a mere 1,500 units as of March 2018.

The individual values of such currencies also perished. Bitcoin, the most famous virtual currency, rose from $1,000 a unit at the start of 2017 to over $20,000 by the year end ripped off back to below $8,000.

Also Read: Recent Trends Fueling Investment in the Indian Market

The investor sector took the hardest hit. The top e-currency exchanges of India who were shaking hands with around 2,00,000 and 3,00,000 investors a month; came down to around 50,000 maximum.

But, to everyone’s wonder, Bitcoin made a profit over 44% in value nearly 16 months RBI banned virtual currencies.In July, 2018, Bitcoin was at $6,541.79 which rose upto $9,450.68 in October 2019, securing a rise of 44.47% during the period.

Scope of Cryptocurrency

Even after the initial slowdown in India, cryptocurrency is now back in the ring. Demonetization strengthened people’s faith  in virtual currency

The cryptocurrency market is estimated to rise upto USD 1.40 billion by the year 2024, at a CAGR of 6.18% during the forecast duration. It has become a new favourite of  entrepreneurs, SMEs, start-ups, are taking an interest in cryptocurrency due to its revolutionary concept to counter transactional conformity.Owing to factors like safety and reliability, the scheme attracts extensive venture funding, partnerships , collaborations, and amongst cryptocurrency solutions providers to provide end-to-end solutions.

The Indian market has about1548 cryptocurrencies which are currently functional in the market as an alternative to Bitcoin.

For a country like India, where everything is weighed on a scale of monetary worth, the only way to beat cash is to make a currency that is more worth than cash.

Other than that, native companies know more about the Indian consumer mindset than anyone else. The only way crypto economy can be established, is letting the population step into game, with a crypto exchange and a wallet. This would prove to be humongous difference for the blockchain community.

Also Read: What is algorithmic trading?

Growth and Future of Cryptocurrency in India

India underwent a relationship of sorts with blockchain. On the one hand, the Indian government has shown tremendous inclination towards blockchain technology, initiating government-sponsored blockchain projects in nearly half the Indian states.

At the same time, the government has displayed amounts of indecision towards cryptocurrency, it wanted to control its growth by enabling measures for the same.
As per recent reports, the adoption of bitcoin might see a significant boost in 2020. According to research company Arcane Research, Bitcoin trading volumes have increased more than 100% in just a week’s time.

In the report given on the 9th of January, the company states that the 7-day average for Bitcoin rocketed upto 126% in 2020’s first week. $1.5 billion were traded just on the 8th of January.This is a huge development, considering that only $192 million was traded on Jan 1.

The governments and the central banks might be more affectionate to digital currencies, taking the demand to a new zenith. The cryptocurrency market alters everyday, with new currencies in the game proving to be more profitable than the existing. According to crypto traders, Bitcoin would climb to a new peak of $20,000 in early 2020.

Conclusion

Despite India’s curious stance, there is a ray of cautious optimism towards the cryptocurrency domain. Positive regulations by the government  seems to be gathering significant momentum, and most experts are convinced that India won’t be saying goodbye to cryptocurrencies anytime soon.

India is undergoing an economic slowdown, and cryptocurrency can effectively help. The blockchain domain has seen a tremendous rise in the number of jobs, other than jobs it can help in attracting new foreign venture capital investments into Indian startups, evidently, the total amount of funds raised globally in ICOs in 2019 is over $346 million. It can also offer the opportunity to bank the massive 300M+ unbanked people in India.

It can be assumed that cryptocurrency is here to shine, so as a developing nation rather than taking a step back we might as well consider a progressive approach to a sector that is nascent, growing multitudes and has transformational potential.