Bitcoin Forum

Hello Friends,

Visited India few weeks back, and as we all know that it is a highly populated country, with some very great corporates and highly educated people, Some big IT companies also have their offices in India, But for my surprise very few of the population of India are aware about the bitcoins.

What could be the reason behind it?

Lack of awareness level
Government not supporting bitcoins
Banks not supporting too
Or people resist change

Looking at the population of India, If bitcoins gets positive feedback even from the half of the population from Indians, I believe it would a win - win situation for the bitcoin community.

Bitcoin is hit by a rule of the RBI regulations in India. As per the current law banking institutions can only release any prepaid payment instruments. In some senses bitcoin may be considered a prepaid payment instrument because to get bitcoin you need to initially make payment in either dollars or rupees or any other currencies. Current RBI regulations do not permit this.

However there is nothing which prevents people from trading and using bitcoin among themselves. For example, if you are offering services for me and are willing to take payment in bitcoin that cannot really be prevented. Remember however that if we enter into a contract which says that you will be paid in bitcoin, that contract will not be valid because the compensation is not recognized by law.

I think as of now it is not so popular but sooner or later it may become popular  ;)

That is true, and I believe that people must be using bitcoins for online transactions but are not disclosing it that they are already using it, but if people in India starts accepting and adopting bitcoins than it can have a greater impact on bitcoin community, as we want that more and more users gets involved into bitcoins as we want that the value of bitcoin should be stable in future.

Bitcoin has a great future anywhere there is electricity and commerce.

You need electricity to access the blockchain.

You need commerce to provide opportunity for bitcoin to be obtained or used.

I think it's that simple.

So India? Yes.

Like i ve been reading,India Central Bank is very open for Btc
it can be good specially now whan developing countries may suffer,becouse of economic chaos

Not only in India, bitcoin has also a great future in other country if there countrymen and goverment will adopt the bitcoin.

If you talk about electricity then India may fail because most of the states do not have a electricity even for daily normal usage during summer time.

I think, wherever there is bitcoin will definitely get better, so I guess in india also bitcoin has a great future
the more widely known bitcoin then the better

if they are not going to suddenly change their mind on the matter and ban, heavy restrict it, i guess it could have a future like in any other countries where there ar enot heavy rule, it only a matter of what their governments will do

i thinl that right now the price play an important role, because until we have a good marketcap bitcoin will be simply ignored by the majority of the governments

Yes, of course
if in india wear bitcoin, certainly the future of bitcoin there could be better

Are you insane ?? you are expecting a change in currency from half of a country where 100% of the population is closeminded ,selfish and religion addicts..
I would say even expecting more than 2% (12 million people) will not be more than a dream..

People will use what you propose them if they find value in it. Simple as that. Offer Indian people that are living abroad a safe, cheap and relatively simple way to send their earnings back home to their families and they will use it instead of the Western Union that will charge them about 15%.

People can be religious and close minded as much as they want, but if you show them an easier and cheaper way, I know they will choose this way.

Cheers!

No they wont choose ....you cnt change the currency for 1.2 billion people ,plus what do you think BITCOIN is not accepted anywhere on shops etc.. people you re speaking iff require money to survive not to buy a ferrari ?
this is a fringe stream and its very difficult for third world countries to adopt it.

Give it time man, just give it time. Rome wasn't built in a day, nor new technology will replace old one in a day. How long it took for computers? How long did it take for email? And yes, the change won't come first in India, or Africa, it will probably first come in California and Amsterdam, but this is the way it works. Third world could countries will be probably late 5-10 years but this is normal.

Bitcoin might have a great future all around the world, but i think especially in poor country

That's totally right, poor country need a Bitcoin to make solve their money problem.
Because they're hardto  afford high fee to send their own money

Bitcoin in India will make that country bright in the future, although bitcoin will not replaced the fiat, just for alternative but it will be batter if they use it, like what OP said, half of population on India will make a win-win situation for bitcoin community. especially now AFAIK there are some bitcoin company in India, like exchanger for example.

You not only need electricity, you need a device that can connect to the internet, so this means an entire village could run  on a single smartphone acting as a bank, of course ideally you want every single person owning a smartphone/computer.

yes, even if internet connectivity is an issue sometimes, bitcoin wallet could still be accessed through sms and trading is possible. A lot of people underestimate the potential of bitcoin in India, and rules and regulations not supporting something like bitcoin does not satisfy the people making them not be involved in something like this. Rest, hardly few people know what's bitcoin here, lack of media attention in India towards bitcoin.

many people in India don't know about bitcoins so if people know ABOUT it then it will be a great feature for bit coins

I am a regular visitor to India (family ties, business.etc), and I don't think that Bitcoin will gain widespread acceptance in that country. Also, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is vehemently opposed to the usage of Bitcoin. Almost all the local Bitcoin exchanges and the other Bitcoin-based ventures have closed down due to the harassment from the RBI.

no, there are still local bitcoin based exchanges operating in India, and recently I have came in acquaintance with a lot of people who are in possession and even in business of cryptocurrency. I'm pretty happy that the market in India is expanding every year which proves that more adoption is taking place in India, pretty sure it will pick up soon.

I'm also from India.
So far no success in bringing people to Bitcoin. Nut I've brought one friend to bitcointalk.
Here majority of people work in offices from morning till evening or run their own shops, so no time for anything else.

India might have one of the highest population figures in the world, but the majority of them are very poor. They have very skilled IT people and I

know this, because I have worked with some of them. They are hard and disciplined workers like the Chinese people and a joy to work with.

The thing is, the laws in India regarding Bitcoin is not very friendly and this might put a damper on innovation in that country. They are one of

the countries in the world that would benefit the most from this technology. { Job creation and foreign capital investment and tourism income }   

Isn't Bitcoin already gaining some traction among the Indian tech crowd?
Definitely a huge market :)

There are a few bitcoin-based ventures in India, but they are not completely legal. The rules and regulations regarding the usage of Bitcoins in India generally fall within the grey zone. And to complicate the things further, Raghuram Rajan (the head of the Reserve Bank of India) is acting like Benjamin Lawsky of the NYDFS.

I haven't been to India for several years, but I think there's a lot of potential for BTC there. Not for all Indians though. This is a huge country with very different kinds of people. Only one part of the people may use and appreciate BTC, but that still means millions.

Yes, the tech crowd is huge. So if it gains traction among the tech crowd, it will be a great success.
Some of the tech companies have started experimenting with the blockchain.

I even know a few people who are young entrepreneurs planning to starting bitcoin based ventures despite the rules and regulations, their lawyer say they would be under protection so its all good. I think bitcoin in India has crazy potential, once there is more knowledge and media coverage about it there, I think it'd be pretty fire ;)

Never trust the lawyers. The laws regarding the usage of crypto-currency in India are very vague. They can be interpreted in many ways. And since the Reserve Bank of India is anti-Bitcoin, I wouldn't risk my investment in Bitcoin, if I was in India. First let them create laws and regulations offering protection for the ventures.

why would there be creation of law if there are no ventures asking for it? I think with more adoption between people, such problems can be overcome and such problems cannot be overcome if more people in India would start using bitcoin. I think its weird to expect Indians to use bitcoin without any local companies bitcoin in dealing themselves. Also, if I was them, I'd hire a white dude as a CEO and operate under his name so I don't have to deal with the RBI :P

Yes, India is a huge market for bitcoins and young tech savy crowd is already excited about bitcoins. On other hand there are some wrong information in the mind of the people regarding bitcoins that its a scam and RBI has already expressed that they will never regulate bitcoin in india. There is a need to spread the knowledge regarding bitcoins via mainstream media or via some celebrities. I agree that bitcoins has great future not only in india but also in entire world.

Oh really ,may i ask you whose alt account are you Sir ???
and plus just thinking that bitcoin has good future at someplace where there is more population is not just closeminded but also a time waste.
India is a place for rich people only ,and nothing can change that until the people get out od their religious and superstitious bullshit.
majority of the population in India dont even have a National ID ,until the new id launched back some years ago known as Aadhar ,which still hasent covered more than a quarter of the polulation .

yeah i think so. but to be honest i hope bitcoin will have a great future in my country
because the rate is very low now in my country

India have many people who works in software development industry surely many people should be knowing about bitcoin by now but may not be using it because bitcoin is still not accepted in any mainstream businesses.

For all those who are wondering about RBI's stance on bitcoins, you can read this
https://rbi.org.in/SCRIPTS/BS_SpeechesView.aspx?Id=971

You can go to point 30, titled Undesirable and Questionable Disruptive Innovations  :P

I`m not familiar with indian legislation or regulations.

But India has already a big taste for gold, so they are into alternatives, plus they are pretty opportunistic and wealth loving which is good, so if they pursue it, i think bitcoin can have a big future in India.

The Indian authorities are famous for taking retarded and retrograde steps regarding new innovations. I still remember the incident which occurred in the late 1980s, when computers were first imported to India. The local communist party thugs destroyed all of those systems, claiming that computers will make ordinary Indians unemployed. And after two decades, these same thugs can't live without computers.

yes I think bitcoin has a good future at india but I am still little bit confused about the corruption in india as it can still apoint the bitcoin system if it used for the corruption

Poverty in India has been addressed to decrease at a pace, and I don't think that majority of them are poor, that is such an immature thing to say man. I think 30-35% population might be poor. And I am defining poor as a person who has a very cheap house, no savings and probably no job and resources. There are millions of RICH FILTHY RICH Indians living in India and other places, trust me, India is not as poor as foreigners assume it to be. Attached a graph proving how it has reduced its position in the chart from other countries.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/2014_Poverty_rate_chart_Chad_Haiti_Nigeria_Bangladesh_Kenya_Indonesia_India_China_Brazil_based_on_World_Bank_new_2011_PPP_benchmarks.png

In India, just around 25,000,000 people pay their income tax (that is around 2% of the population). And remember that everyone earning more than $4,000 per year has to pay income tax to the government. This means that 98% of the population is earning less than $4,000 per year, or around $330 per month. That said, 25 million is a good number.

yes, you are right, I remember India's finance minister talking about how only 2-3% people pay tax, around 36 million people, and that is pretty much understandable why conditions are still not so good at rural places in India, because India is a big, big, big country when it comes to people, not land :P  A population of 1.25 billion people, that's like 1/6th population of the world is living in India :/

I am a regular visitor to India. I am part ethnic Indian (25%). I have family ties, as well as business interests in India. Two most important things I have noticed about India:

1. There is a huge discrepancy between the rich states (such as Kerala, Goa, and Himachal Pradesh), and the poor states (such as Bihar and Orrissa).

2. There is a huge informal sector. This is very evident in real estate, manufacturing.etc.

Bitcoin can have a huge effect on the informal sector, if utilized properly.

Half of the population of India can not sign their name and you expect them to support bitcoin. Good luck to day dreaming. :D

yes, it could benefit India vastly, because there are so many trades taking place in the infromal sector, where there is no government moderating transactions. Street markets and other products which are not taxed or governed by a designated authority could benefit largely, unfortunately literacy is a major problem which needs to be overcome in order to achieve such a trance of economy.


BURNNNNNN  :P

India is having a total population of 1,300 million (and growing at a rate of 2% per year). The number of IT professionals in India is more than the total population of Ireland or Denmark. So it doesn't matter whether a large proportion of the Indians are illiterate or not. There are enough tech savvy people in that country, to take the Bitcoin adaption to a higher level.

even entrepreneurial growth in India has been increasing and their involvement with cryptocurrency can boost positive results for bitcoin as a currency, disregarding about the rules, regulations, etc in India from RBI about bitcoin. I think that India has developed a lot in human resources as well. Good to see people choose diverse careers rather than just doctorship or engineering, a common case in India I believe, yes?

No, because there are not so many computer users in India. India is very poor country, and in foreseen future I do not see any possible changes in India  :)

You dont need PC, you need only a phone, which obviously guys have. Even africans have phones.

Basically put a bitcoin wallet on a smart phone, (internet via mobile internet , since i doubt some poor villages have cable internet).

Problem resolved. I see many hackers and programmers from india, so they must have to know how to use PC obviously.

Most people dont see it as a mobile play thats why I guess.

But I feel india already has a huge poential based on what you pointed out with "phones" itself being the PC.

As an indian, i can say the reason for peoples why doesn't use bitcoin is they didn't have enoug awareness about bitcoins and they resist to change INR (fiat) to BTC. And also lack of technical skills (you can take a survey). Most of the peoples were educated, Just educated. Not technically, but by theories.

With the way free trade is moving,  I believe more jobs will going to where the labor is cheapest.  I believe there is potential for bitcoin in India,  But it is gonna be at least another 10 years.

I think your wrong most of the indian educated people are technical graduates only not exposed to bitcoins. There are over 1.5 Million engineering pass outs in India every year but they do not have an idea of bitcoin use. As of now bitcoin market itself not matured and is limited to less the 4 billion dollar market. So lets think on how to grow first in developed countries instead India. I don't think even 10% population are using bitcoins in USA and other developed countries.

Bitcoin has a great future everywhere, India is also a big place where are you getting your stats from that says there are less users there than in other countries? Please don't tell me because you visited a few places and less than 0.000001% you see didn't know about Bitcoin.

You are right thinking if half the population is positive about it becoming very successful indeed, less than that will do the job. In good time many countries around the world will know about Bitcoin, we need to be patient and help it along its way.

It is true, if all educated people in India wants to buy bitcoins then it will be bitcoin shortage in market  ;)  Where to go then?

IM sure bitcoin will be great to be biggest online payment at world also at india

There is a lot of poverty in India and lack of resources for a huge part of the population but as India is emerging as the most populated nation on earth, surpassing China, if there is a collective hoard of people beginning to adopt it then it could take hold and benefit especially a lot of areas where there are no banking facilities. Even in a village you could get one computer in every village and every villager can access his bitcoin account from that one computer..You don't need huge resources for people to have their own wallet..It may be a cheaper way for people to use and access money having one computer in every village or all the villagers each having a smartphone given to them, maybe can generate wealth for many many who have nothing or no access to banking. I think it could be a game changer in India if they see it in this light.

For it to have future there there'd need someone to provide products competitive to what people in other countries have access to. If you read the news (http://www.coindesk.com/african-remittance-beam-drops-bitcoin-pivot/) today, a startup dedicated to providing financial services to unbanked dropped bitcoin from their services because of the high cost trading bitcoin in Aftica would require.

The literacy rates in India too have been growing tremendously anually. I think that even if the English speaking class displays interest in bitcoin, it could really be a nice opportunity for bitcoin to shine. 10% of India speaks the English language fluently, leaving a market of more than 125 million people. In fact, India’s population is more than the combined population of US, Russia, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Japan, UK, Germany, Australia, Italy, Spain and New Zealand! ;)

Corruption too is high in India. ;)
If a small portion of bribe payments were routed through bitcoins, the price would receive a massive boost.

Yeah that keyword is advertised correctly.

But in general, if thats true what that persons saying, and the lack awareness level is that bad we really shouldnt expect anything in the near future then.

Unless some serious financially situation happens forcing their hand.

Haha, so who wants to volunteer becoming the indsider politician for us.

Corruption in general is everywhere, i think the important thing though is that if theres a chance of awareness for the indian people then we still have a shot regardless corruption or not. Its just slower growth.

and the image of Bitcoin would be hurt even more, and probably BTC would be banned in India and other places.

Like Silk Road, Gox and drug dealers aren't enough

luckily though, they havent experienced any of these situations, like most have.

so I hope that those past history lessons just dont resurface and focus on the better parts of bitcoin.

I was questioning 'what-if' there is already bribery being exchanged in India in terms of bitcoin, what if there is tax fraud taking place in India more often then what people know? There has been increase in bitcoin owners in India from the past 3 years, even bitcoin ventures are functioning through India, there is VPN and many ways to hide IP and ID, I think there is already trade in a more smarter and secret class of Indians

There is no such thing as bad publicity.
The media attention on Silk Road probably got a lot of people's attention and initiated people into Bitcoin (not necessarily to buy drugs).

i think bitcoin has great future in india
maybe they're not just that exposed about bitcoin and its
potential to get them more interested

I think not only in india many other countries bitcoin is not popular now. Once it got accepted in many businesses then slowly whole world will come to know about it.

Never heard something about BTC there.. I think the future of BTC is when people more known BTC is..

There is because while alot of "cyberpunks" got interested, bad stories like that keep big investors away unfortunately.

Imagine if we can convince Bill Gates or Warren Buffett to invest 10 billion $ each, into bitcoin. It would be a better publicity than 1000 new nerds joining bitcoin just to do faucets...

Having a population of 1,300 million is a curse, if 99% of it is lacking the necessary skills. Look at China. They also have a similar population (and 3 times the land area). The Chinese government invested quite heavily in improving the technical skills of its population during the 1990s. As a result China is the world's manufacturing hub right now.

But in India, there is no encouragement for improving individual skills. 85% of the population falls within various reserved categories, and they don't feel the need to improve their skills, as jobs are reserved for them by the government. The remaining 15% improve their skills, so that they could migrate to Canada or the European Union.

sadly true, but I am just stating that with such a vast population, if rules and regulations are implemented the way they are intended to, proper education is provided and life skills are taught for free, there is so much room for improvement in human resources sector. The only terrible thing slowing India are the amount of time, energy and life people invest in following religions and underestimating their potential

methink given the high rate of illiteracy India would be the last country to accept bitcoin.70% Indian population lives in rural area and most of them still do not have internet how come such people will know about bitcoin is anybody's guess

I think that Bitcoins has a great future all over the world. Some parts of the world are embracing it rapidly and some aren't. Taking India's market growth into consideration, it is evident that Bitcoins will finally hit India's financial hubs as well but it will take some time before that happens.

I definitely feel that bitcoin has the great potential in india, especially given the fact there are many Indians who work online, whether through owning their own business or freelancing so it would be a natural progression for anyone involved in tech or doing business online. Particularly paypal has a lot of restrictions in terms of how much can be transferred in and out of there into indian rupees. Bitcoin can fill in a very good void.

Most of the Indian freelancers don't pay any tax on their income. That is one of the reasons why the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed restrictions on Paypal usage a few years ago. And if people start using some other mode of payment (such as Bitcoin) to circumvent these restrictions, then the RBI will impose restrictions on that medium as well.

How many times have you been to india to make such a statement? Thats racism  :o

China seems to have found its strength in manufacturing, India in Software Services.
The private sector has stepped in to fill the void left by the government in skill development. Both models (government led and private-sector led) seem to work. Having said that, I don't see large scale usage/awareness about Bitcoin even among software professionals. This is surprising.

yes but i think Bitcoin is  Not only in India , bitcoin has also a great
future in other country if there countrymen and goverment
will  use this.

Bitcoin can have a great future in india if there are people or a group that is willing to campaign for the use of digital currency, and the good things from the use of digital currency.
And this is not only for India but for the whole country that people do not know about digital currency and also benefit from its use

Most people are mobile in inda.

And if that means new areas of commerce to happen because of internet + bitcoin that means more transactions. Its not just good for india only, its good for all countries.

Esp developing ones that have a hard time sending money.

i dont think so,and not many know about that.. but i know that india people interesting to bitcoin,and i have a friend from india..

Well it does make sense.

As for the part where very few know about it. I mean if you walk outside and ask your neighbor what bitcoin is, most chances are he/she never even heard about it.

So why would another country be any different lol.

In my view India has a very great future for Bitcoins, because technology wise in India their are peoples who can live without food but cannot live without Tv and Mobile Phones, so when they come to know about Bitcoins, and in india online market is going very vast

If the Online Company start to use the Bitcoin Payment Option then it is sure that with a span of time most ofthe Indians will come to know about Bitcoins and Alt coins. Then you can see that how the market of Bitcoins is going to boom in India. So now it is the time to lay the Base of Bitcoins which will fetch them very good returns in future.

What you said is true as of now many indian people do not have knowledge of bitcoins but only few people who into online money making programs they only know about it. Reason is as for as I know no big company or service provider are accepting bitcoin as a payment hence many people are not knowing it.

That's true big companies are aware about the bitcoins and they are already using it, but our goal is that the every individual should be aware about the bitcoins, as the individual adoption can make the difference, but when it comes to India I don't think that many would be aware about it as many of them are not tech savvy and that's the reason India is behind in the adoption of bitcoins.

Well,, I guess if indian accept bitcoin, definitely there will thrive bitcoin
it all depends on the state regulation of india

in india I have observed that most of the peoples do not know about the bitcoin system like today I told some of my friends about this or I should say I introduced them with this money processing system and they found it so cool but hard to learn this

India is pretty regulated, and a bit leftist.

But also there are zones there where people trade freely without much restrictions. I think in these zones bitcoin could become a bartering currency.

India is a good developing country
i think we will see bitcoin very similar at india in future