Bitcoin Forum

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We are back from a long trip to India and Nepal.  If wanted I can share pics with those interested.

I see that "not much" that I can see has happened in "Bitcoinistan" since I left.

I will mention that NO ONE has heard of Bitcoin save ONE person in our tour group (18 of us total). 

Bitcoin may be BIG in China, but not in India (certainly not Nepal, now under a fuel embargo by India -- complicated).

India IS progressing faster than I woulod have guessed, they have seen the light re infrastructure (and other things to advance, you know, things like economic freedom, etc.) and of course a relatively tranquil democracy.  But, BTC ain't ready for primetime there.  Pity.

Agreed, quite a pity. My friend, who's Indian, told me that his family back there couldn't really wrap their heads around a virtual currency.

Sure! Send us some pictures!

I am a regular visitor to India (especially to Delhi, and Kerala). Although there are not many shops which accept BTC in these regions, you can easily convert your BTC to fiat cash (INR), at low premiums. In Delhi itself, there are dozens, if not hundreds of traders who trade Bitcoins for fiat cash. Use Localbitcoins to get in touch with these guys.

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I was on a guided tour for Americans, so not exposed to India's HUGE tech industry.

Decoded asked for a picture or two, here's one of Mt. Everest that I took a few days ago on Buddha Air Flight 101 (yes...):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxnHmH-02CQIenZiNktURVdHb0lvNjFlWGpJM0dsMWN6MGlB/view?usp=sharing

Have to click the link, still badly jetlagged...

Another photo soon on the Ganges, no BTC there either...

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Funeral pyres on the Ganges River one evening.  I could only get about 10 of the pyres in the photo, there were some 16 or so at this site when we passed by on the boat:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxnHmH-02CQIQ3VHT2U2ZFJkNXJhRTAwTy15NzUwR2FDVnFj/view?usp=sharing

They wrap the bodies up within 24 hours, put butter oil on them and burn the bodies in sandalwood pyres within 24 hours.  Those who can do so do that at Varanasi (Benares) where I took this one.

Hi Bryant,

We were too busy doing tourist crap (our first visit) so I saw none of that in Delhi (I did see a fabulously named shop in the business I was in Delhi's old town: "Fine Bearing Shop", LOL, they apparently sold used bearings -- wish I could have dropped in).



EDIT: Bryant, the ONE guy was an American on the tour. but he had never used BTC before, just read about it.

It's a pity since that's a huge market out there that could cause a new price surge.
Are there already any Bitcoin related start-ups in India that any of you know of?

Maybe it's the fact that there are probably a lot less people in India who have access to the internet..Although India is known for its Techies..the proportion of these compared to maybe those in China having internet access and knowledge could be far lower.. This is just my 2 bit guess..

If bitcoin became big in India, could you imagine the potential!

I am an Indian, Bitcoin is not that famous in India. People always prefer currency notes to cards, so having a mobile wallet is like far from reach. Only the younger generation is getting to know about bitcoin.

it's about generation, old generations, can't really understand something like bitcoin, there is too much religion there still ancient mentality, i guess that some of them are not even familiar with electronic payment

bitcoin need a new generation of people that understand well how and why it is useful for them

I am from Nepal as you have mentioned in OP yes we are in big fuel crisis only due to blockade by indian government specially modi. It is very hard here to even get right medicine at right time and people are dying with small injuries too. But let make it apart talking about bitcoin it has lots of potential here as till now only esewa has been medium to get foreign currency via skrill. I am also discussing with some of the guy who trade on localbitcoin about opening bitcoin exchange over here. We are not advance in our political situation but we are not quite far from the technologies india have.

Lets hope the relation between india and nepal will remain good forever.

This just shows that Bitcoin usage and adoption is nothing more than peanuts right now. If everything is done in a well manner, then Bitcoin will grow to unseen levels. Inda is indeed rising and is even being considered to be a world power at one day by certain economists.

I have been to India a couple of times and there are very few places that accept Bitcoin. Like in Australia, where I live, there are barely any shops that accept Bitcoin. The only difference to India, is that there are a lot of currency exchanges in India that are willing to exchange Bitcoin for fiat and vise versa.

Yeah. I definitely think that India is going to be a global powerhouse in the Bitcoin world. Bitcoin is definitely getting adopted around the world and it has already exploded in the US and it is rapidly spreading across the world.

You do not need to imagine, just look at the figures ---> http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/india-population/

The population of India is estimated at 1,267,401,849 as of July 1 2014.

India's population is equivalent to 17.5% of the total world population.

India ranks number 2 in the list of countries by population.

The population density in India is 386 people per Km2.

32% of the population is urban (410,404,773 people in 2014).

The median age in India is 26.6 years.  <--- This has the most potential.

The political environment is very complex and not very easy to penetrate...

If only one market place starts to accept Bitcoin, we will all smile ---> IndiaMART offers a platform and tools to over 14 million buyers to search from over 25.7 million

products and get connected with over 1.8 million reliable and competitive suppliers. Founded in 1996, the company’s mission is ‘to make doing businesses, easy’.

Another reason is RBI regulations.
Paypal itself faced many hard time against Indian money laundering rules. (Still no personal payment option for Indian Paypal accounts and daily mandatory withdrawal to bank account).
Black money is big problem in Indian economy, so they will worry about bitcoin more.

Blackmoney is the biggest headache that India has, almost all the government officials are having black money. It is difficult to bring back the money.

There isn't one single India. It would be closer to reality to say that there are several India. If you go to Mumbai, you'll see people starving, but barely a few blocks from them you see the latest models from Bentley, Mercedes and Rolls Royce. Extreme poverty is side by side with extreme wealth in India. The same goes for BTC knowledge and use.

The OP is right in his assessment.
There are some traders who buy/sell bitcoin.
Bitcoin's actual usage in commerce is currently negligible.

Bitcoin in real life is even lower. Low education and poverty restricts access to the internet. Making it more unlikely that they have heard of it

If we'd get at least one broken economy going with bitcoin, then the rest would follow with ease. I think that Kenya is the leading target for us just because the wide popularity of mpesa and its similarities to bitcoins.
However we'd need proper internet access to the areas where poverty is high. Maybe by connecting those places to the rest of the world would give them a lot of knowledge and information. There are a lot of pretty good projects going that try to accomplish just that.

When I visited India a few months ago, I was really surprised at the expanding internet usage there, especially among the lower middle class population. Smartphones are quite popular there, and a lot of people use them to access social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. These people might be poor, but they use internet quite frequently.

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Some more comments re India and Nepal FWIW.

1)  I found Nepal to be a very positive place.  Good food, very friendly people.  YES, they are taking a horrible bearing from India re blocking fuel imports to Nepal.  Apparently the reasons are complicated, but it sure looks to me that India is much acting like IMPERIALISTS (oh the irony of that).  But, again, I do not know all the facts.

2)  A couple of you above mentioned that India looks like they will become a major power, perhaps a superpower.  I agree.  New Delhi and its airport were quite impressive.  Their population is growing (unlike China, which I visited a long 14 years or so ago).  I think that the Indian population (as a whole -- also mentioned above is the idea of "many Indias" as it it is so varied) is catching on to the ideas of freedom, education, etc.  But there is a LONG way to go.  Our impressive Indian Tour Guide, for example, had his own marriage arranged...  Nonetheless, they have two delightful children.

3)  India is a hard trip for (most) Americans.  You must be open-minded and "ready for anything".  Get your vaccinations!  Even so you will almost surely get sick at some point, but at least you will not get Hepatitis A, Typhoid Fever, Tetanus and other truly horrible diseases...

4)  Both of our guides were extremely useful, competent and nice people.  Anyone going to India or Nepal, PM me (or ask via email, there at my Profile here).

5)  NONE of the Indians nor Nepalis that I ran into knew anything about Bitcoin, but I was a TOURIST (with my wife).  If wither or both countries start catching on to BTC in a big way, that would make the lives of tourists better (less risk of losing money to theft) and they themselves (not having to deal with onerous currency controls).

6)  Bryant is quite correct about SO MANY using cellphones, just like the young here.  Just in of itself that implies future-oriented thinking, maybe as the generations come along they will indeed surprise the world re progressing into becoming a mighty country.  But, there are a LOT of ways things could go wrong too.

same here in Turkey. not many people know about it.

Oh I really didnt realised. Always had the impression that internet access was rather low

Hmm, I have been thinking recently (and please tell me if this is nonsense) about the possibilities in starting a "charity" type of program for places like India. My SO travels out there a lot for programs that help the poorer areas of places like in India and Africa, and she keeps telling me how talented they are in producing goods such as clothes, baskets, etc for extremely cheap. I was thinking that maybe if someone were to introduce them to the Internet in general and find some way/someone to market the villages goods they produce, then it would help them earn more revenue and prosper just a little bit more in their life. This could be paid in Bitcoin which could be easily converted to their currency, but they would need to tell them how much of an investment Bitcoin is.

I know it's a real long shot, but I think they would be for it if it broadens their market to sell to more people. Even though poor countries hardly have electricity, Kenya is making big strides with mobile payments like m-pesa to help business move forward, so why not make it global for people in those areas which could let them earn more money by using Bitcoin?

They are only using the useless social network sites such as Facebook. So you can argue that the internet access / usage is rather low. They are not doing anything productive at all. Just posting their pics and sharing it with their friends. The number of broadband users is quite low. And the quality of these broadband connections are absolutely horrible.

Facebook and WhatsApp are the most popular apps used in India, and I don't expect this to change.
People have started using mobile phones extensively for business (compared to say 5 years ago) and I expect them to graduate to using the internet on their phones. Unavailability of many vernacular apps is an issue.

Populations that need Bitcoin more are the same who have more difficulties in adopting it, for several reasons:
first, illiteracy, doesn't allow them to open their mind and accept that money can come in different configuration than dirty paper and coins,
second, poorness, not everybody can have a smartphone or a pc, they have other priorities, like eating
But things are moving in India as well as in Africa, and when the Bitcoin Bang will begin, mainstream adoption in poor countries will happen not so later than in the rich ones.

Yup Even I have some colleagues who is from India, So many people not aware of bitcoins. But who are all working in bitcoin they are very clever and they are doing trading also through localbitcoins.com and btcindia. Except Amazon India and Ebay India  none of the Online shops are accepting as I got info from my friend.

I don't share the same opinion with you about India and its citizens. I don't know from which country you are but I live in Europe. Indians are very diverse people compared to the Europeans. And maybe even from to many other peoples. They are very patient (until the acceptance of suffering as a normal way of life) and this make them very precious people. This infinite patience and obedience make them maybe to repulse the new things - even immediately (they may need not few time to accept the new thing because of the above personality), but slowly they learn and understand what is good and is necessary. Then the same attribute which make them to not accept (immediately or not) the new thing become a "terrible weapon" in their hands and heads. No one and nothing cannot change more this their acceptation. So it will be even with bitcoin. They will understand some day what is bitcoin and what represent it. Such day India will become a second China (in which only two years ago no one or very few people knew bitcoin). This situation it is verified in USA when to many very high important workplaces are fulfilled not from Americans or Chineses but from Indians. The last discovered what is important and are feared competitors with the most brilliant minds of all the world (which mainly meet each other mostly in United States).

There are many competent software programmers in India. Hotmail was originated from India. One day India will be the forefront of bitcoin related business.

The question is not whether any Bitcoin related business will come up from India, but how Bitcoin adoption will be in India. :)
You may have competent programmers, but that alone cannot take Bitcoin to the masses.

There are a lot of smart people in indian doing IT and developing cool apps. Not all india is poor so there are chances that someone with enough resources will come up with a killer Bitcoin app and become rich.

Indian government will not allow bitcoins for so easily to use reason is simple they can't track the transactions and and also can't collect the taxes for these transactions. This was the reason even paypal is exit the India. Paypal didn't agree to pay the taxes for transactions so Indian government didn't allow them to operate in India. It looks like in near future may not happen any things but if bitcoins gain more popularity around the world than they may consider.

Ahh, roadbits raises and important point re India (same thought for Nepal as well).  Capital Controls.  It is very hard to get any excess rupees changed back into dollars without a receipt showing the original rupee purchase.

If their .gov can't control the money, they will likely NOT be benevolent to Bitcoin.

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n2004al

I do not disagree with you re India.  We were there as TOURISTS with a tour group (Americans).

We did see quite a cross-section of India and her citizens just in the 18 or so days we were there (3 more in Nepal).  YES, they are patient and pleasant people.  Very polite.  Seemed non-violent, I did not feel danger even in old towns (eg Delhi).  Multi-lingual in many cases.

India may have a great future (parts of New Delhi hinted at that).  But things can go wrong in places like India, nothing is written in stone.

Wait, I don't really know much about the current state of affairs with Bitcoin and India's government in general... But is there no current exchange offered to the Indian people to be able to exchange bitcoins for the current price in rupees? Is the monetary system so controlled by the government where there is no exchange rate for Indians to deal with Bitcoin in terms of their own denomination? If not this would make India the fore front of bitcoins struggle with mass adoption because India is such a huge country that hasn't been tapped into.

I'm not surprised that Bitcoin won't be widely used in India for a long time, it is a fairly niche market and there aren't many people that own an internet-connected device, based on what I know. It will be even harder for people to be able to use the Bitcoin in their local shops.

If India was a bit more like China it would be more likely to see Bitcoin in India sometime soon, but there simply aren't enough phones or people willing to purchase phones in India that would be willing to learn or use Bitcoin.

India is  continent,mostly agriculture,No internet  infrastructure in many places.His just created  middle class is very small.Bitcoin may grow in India if westerness will pay with btc to his outsourcing  India workers.

Nepal,forget,no internet and now it is one big catasrophe

The current governor of the Reserve Bank of India (Raghuram Rajan) was the mastermind behind driving Paypal out of India. The Indian tax authorities are insane. They are going after middle-class and lower-middle class people, while allowing the high net worth individuals to engage in tax evasions. They have forcibly closed down many of the local bitcoin exchanges. Bitcoin-based businesses are not allowed to open bank accounts. The red tape and bureaucracy is just unbearable. Horrible country, horrible people.

Nope, none of that is true.
You shouldn't believe everything you read on the net.  :)

Not for a long time? I would reconsider:

https://coin.dance/charts/INR

Well you have to make sure there are people willing to work for cheap some how.

However I am not entirely convinced that the government has gone and shut down all the exchanges, especially when looking at the localbitcoins charts.

In every country so far, on localbitcoins, the volumes have been surging when you compare it to recently. That's one of the beauties of Bitcoin, there is literally no way to shut it down unless you shut down the internet.

Well... there is no de jure ban against Bitcoin exchanges in India, but definitely there is a de facto ban. Most of the local exchanges have seen raids by the tax authorities, and none of the banks will work with them. So far, foreign exchanges such as Localbitcoins and Bitfinex are not affected, but I am not sure for how long this situation will remain as such.

There sure do seem to be what look like warring factions in India re Bitcoin.  Some of what I saw (first-time visitor, and as a tourist) made me think that they might have a shot at superpower-dome...

But, cracking down on future-oriented technologies is not wise.

And, yes, I know that India has always been very bad re bureaucracies.  That will hurt them.  Slow them down.

Warring factions in India?
What exactly are you referring to in relation to Bitcoin?

And whys that any difference than in the west?  i live in the UK and i would say that i only have 1 friend out of many who has ever heard of bitcoin.  it hasnt takeoff yet anywhere in the world, yes there is a few million people who have it, have heard off it and use it but that i still a very small minority.  mass adoption wont happen untill the big banks and corperations come on board and promote it.  and they aint there yet, they are still in the attack it stage.  but once they relize that bitcoin is here to stay and that no matter what they do to stop it they lose.  then we will see mass adoption.

Potential users of Bitcoin vs. government (particularly tax authorities there).  Tech vs. Indian .gov.  Lots of factions in India with differing agendas...

bryant.coleman knows more about India & tech than I do.  But, their .gov cracking down on BTC, exchanges, and just their CAPITAL CONTROLS will slow India down.

Can you buy anything in/from India yet with BTC?  You can buy gold with BTC here in the USA...

I wishing you a great success for you guys. People from Europe also welcoming guys who are all with good talent. Many people not seeing race, or anything. Some people are there. leave them as it is. Have a great success in BTC also In your country.

there are startups in banglore related to bitcoin. if my guess is right the mod benson has a start up company in banglore. bitcoin is not at all popular in here thats a sad thing. but time will come pretty soon. E commerce is a big thing here in india. once they start accepting bitcoin then these figures will change for sure

that's true,india is not china,they have some different,excatly on economic condition,but i think india is also have strength to move like china on future.
lets see some years again,i'm sure Asian country will chasing china soon.

If bitcoin having more adoption like in china, imo india might be the worst economical country. Because of black money and corruption.

yes i agree with that,i just find some people from india,and they also dont know much about bitcoin,the market is not high and busy,but we dont know what situation on this year in india,i hope they gonna more care about bitcoin like philiphine and indonesia.

As long as they have internet they'll hear about bitcoin soon enough.

I have friends in India and they are aware of bitcoin and some of them do bitcoin trading as well, but when they try to explain it to others the other people thinks that these bitcoin users are trying to fool them since there were so many scams like this in the past but very soon you will see bitcoin trend in India as well.

How many internet users are there in the world right now? I believe that the figure is somewhere around 3.0 billion and 3.5 billion. Now, how many of them have heard about Bitcoins? A few tens of millions, at the most. And now comes the difficult question. How many of them have used Bitcoins, at least once in their lives? The answer is less than 1 million. So out of 3,250 million internet users, we have 1 million who are using Bitcoins.

Having internet users doesn't mean that there will be a lot of Bitcoiners.

Isn't indian population very young, is it? So, the most should have at least a cell phone. It is an unused potential. Probably, they just get to know about this great payment opportunity.

I think it will happen fast. The world is becoming more digital and that is quite good. I hope that it will be more popular also.
And that more countries is going to use it. But you never know about the value. It is hard to predict.

Enlightening discussion here.  What amazes me is that when I walk into my Engineering courses here in the US, the lecture halls are predominately filled with East Indian students.  So, it is hard for me to wrap my mind around an India which is behind the curve technologically. If bitcoin is not prevalent in India now, I would have to assume that it will be soon.  It's a new generation....a re-interpreted Moore's Law might be applicable when it comes to how fast technology will take hold in some of these places.  When it comes to measuring value, I believe that an equity in education trumps an equity in capital and we will see a return on this investment in the very near future.

India is the worlds biggest democracy. There are a lot of cryptocurrency companies in india,
So I'm positive about the future of digital currencies in the country.

I totally agree that till the politician are their bitcoin technology to india is very hard in every technology they want their profit, and in bitcoin they cannot control it and tax problem. Their are users of Bitcoin and you can see the so many traders are their in localbitcoin site who are mostly from india . So their are peoples who have knowledge and knew the potential of bitcoin. It will take time but we will see India also emerging in Bitcoin Technology very soon.

India is including a large country with a very high population. we need to spread the bitcoin in india. This is very important. for accelarate adoption

Yes, because India has so many people to educate! Also, they have no need for BTC, unlike Chinese citizens which commonly use it to cashout their CNY.

India might have the same amount of people that know about Bitcoins compared to the USA, but the percentage might be only 1%-2% of the population.

Yeah, and even the small proportion of population adopts bitcoin then it can create a huge difference in overall users of bitcoin as the population is high it will add more value to the bitcoins.

So this pretty much sums up everything that reinforces op`s statement.

If its not being aware in our own country like u.s then it will be less likely in another country. Esp when we have more u.s venture bitcoin start ups esp in the u.s it still has to penetrate here 1st.

most of the twitch audience heard of it, but wont go any deeper then the mt.gox incident pricing or being a scam.

High population, but significantly poor.
They might bring in the numbers, but not necessarily the dollars/ruppees.

Its because people in India don't believe in technology much rather than the human physical work. Now it seems more users are coming into it and started earning through bitcoin. But high profile traders are found in India than other countries.

I have a friend in India who is working with top IT company, but when I asked him about bitcoin, he was totally blank and that gave me idea that it will take long time for India to adopt bitcoins.

Actually the present scenario is that most Indians do not prefer to adopt virtual currencies where liquidity is the main reason behind its support.

I am from India and I have seen very few of my peers showed interest when I tried to explain them bout it in details.
They just call it "magic internet money" and start mocking me.

A few of them starts going deeper and when they hear about the recent controversies about bitcoin they tend to avoid the topic and start hoping for everything to settle down before reaching out again.

Overall, I guess the present generation is too ignorant about it. Lets wait and see what happens to the newer gen.

I am from India, and I don't see any major development in my country when it comes to bitcoins, people are just busy in using fiat and credit cards, and if we tell them about bitcoins, they just start laughing and say that these type of currency will not survive in future  >:(

My guess is that most people where I am (rural America) either haven't heard of bitcoin or have heard of it but don't really know what it is.  It's probably the same all over the world.

That's true we are facing same problem everywhere, in my country people have heard about bitcoins but haven't used it, as they are not getting any guidance from the people who are using it, and we know that getting into bitcoins needs initial guidance and give proper knowledge related to bitcoins.

top it company and dont know about bitcoins? how is that even possible. india top it companys are a joke confirmed :P

I think not many are aware about bitcoins, and even if they are aware they will never tell people around them that they are earning with bitcoins, and its a human nature, on one side we want user adoption and on the other side we don't want that people should start earning in bitcoins  as we are earning it  >:(

Just that a lot of people are going to use BTC, won't increase its value automatically.
On a pragmatic viewpoint yes, but not in terms of market capitalization.
Here is were the second markets kick in. All stuff related to BTC, but not BTC itself.
Sites, which host exchange and wallet services, mining sites, mining equipment, just everything.
And I doubt India in its current view of cryptocurrency is going to add substantially to it.
People in India might not make the most smart impression on us western citizens,
but they know how to earn money, if its possible.

Though India is world's biggest democracy, with various cryptocurrencies the adoption of Bitcoin is very low. The reason I found is most companies initially grow and in a short time everything gets shut down with loss to the people.

maybe soon they will know bitcoin.
in fact that was not a matter of race. but it is the person, if they want to open their eyes of virtual currency they will know as soon as possible

India is not really good with the technology side of the world. They are better for their factories and industrial stuff.

Smart phone penetration is 20% already in India and 2nd largest smart phone market in the world:

http://qz.com/608005/india-has-overtaken-the-us-to-become-the-worlds-second-largest-smartphone-market/

I will penetrate India with crypto currency. They key is giving them a reason to use it on their smart phones. It has to relate to what they want to use their smart phones for.

It won't be a "LOOOOONG time". The shift will be quite rapid once it begins.

Who cares about Bitcoin, it is dying (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1387214.msg14111826#msg14111826).

No mate, India is very good with technology aspect too, but the thing is not many people hold that knowledge of technology, and if you travel the interior parts, then you would find many villages without electricity, internet etc.

Isnt this also true in Africa but they still have found a use for mobile use and even a kind of currency spread by sms and basic mobile use ?   Im not sure as I read about it a while back but I accept live electric use especially reliable source is rare in some parts of India but they can also recharge and use batteries as this is the basis of mobile tech.

Ive seen discussions of solar power which for a limited amount does provide some elec use in the back of beyond with no fixed links to infrastructure.    So I would not put off bitcoin in India completely despite the obstacles, if there is a genuine need and big IF bitcoin is useful to these people then I believe it will come sooner then expected

In the major cities you see Indian is like the west. Really into technology internet etc. The urban cities and villages has some catching up to do.
Give them 5-10 years and you will see how India will flourish.

There are lots of people from India that I have seen on this forum quite often. Indians are very technologically advanced. I know because I compete with Indian programmers on this forum all the time. Things are easier earning Bitcoiin when your local GDP isn't great.

That's true India is a developing country, and the best thing is the majority of Indian population is youth, So youth will always be keen to learn new things, and things will change in future for sure.

Yes same thing here in America, even in cities.  I am friends with people that work in tech in Seattle at Amazon and other startups and even there people are pretty oblivious to it. This is probably common around the world.  

When and if India starts getting into bitcoin that will be huge for adoption.  More and more people in third world countries are using phones to access the internet and as this increases so will btc/crypto awareness.

Yeah, in India everyone is using internet on their smart phones, even small villages have access to internet, so if India start adopting bitcoins, then it can make a huge difference in bitcoin adoption.

You will never know what will happen in the future. The world is becoming now more modern and digital.
I think some people have Bitcoin in India and of course not that much have Bitcoin, but that will change.

What you are saying is true, but I have a friend from India, I told him about the bitcoins, but he didn't agree to invest into it, so I think that would be the case with the majority of the population of India, they won't  get convinced very soon.

So is it easy for you to convince people around you who are not tech friendly? Majority of the people will react in the same way as they have good job and good source of income they really don't care what the hell bitcoin is all about.

There are a lot more people in China Internet Savvy and using computers but in India you have more of the younger generation using computers so that also can be a prime reason for why it hasn't taken off so well in India as opposed to China. There are many other social and cultural and political reasons too which make Bitcoin something as a strange concept and too complicated. Most Indians want to own tangible wealth like gold etc so wrapping their head around bitcoin may seem too far fetched for many. Tecy types and people working online though in India love Bitcoin.

You will never know what can happen later in the future. But I think it will come soon to India.
Bitcoin is becoming more popular and that is very good. Also for the economy and Bitcoin. Now we must only hope that it will be more worth later in the future.

Exactly said, Bitcoin is growing and getting adoptions from India equal to western countries. This will continue and as said not only cities are growing equal to west, small towns too getting few necessary things like internet and getting digitalized.

i dont think so,you guys said as tourism who came to india,and you said bitcoin in india weak and not for long time,its not objective in my opinion,i will fully believe if indians people said this,it will be real fact.

Yeah, internet in india is widely used and accessible from any corner of the country, majority of the people are using smart phones, and use of bitcoin is just a click away from  them, at present very few would be aware about the bitcoins, but the scenario would change in future for sure.

India would is very big,if bitcoin mass adoption starts at it ,i believe it will be a boom into the merchants business ,making the bitcoin demand become too high,making the price of bitcoin grow .

Yes, I think if India start adopting bitcoins then it can have positive effect on the adoption level, as the population of India is huge, even a small proportion of population starts using bitcoins, it can create a huge difference.

Even the use of the small proportion will increase the adoption. But soon when India is considered illegal activities through Bitcoin will increase than the European nations.

India will take a long time to get into bitcoins I guess, I am from India and I don't see any major development in it, as no one is aware about bitcoins, and many of them have even not heard about it.

I think the lack of adoption is because India has a stable currency, a stable central bank and a democratic system. So there is no urgency to adopt BTC.

Whereas in China, people are desperate to get their money out, and in places like Argentina and Venezuela, inflation is so high, people are using BTC because it's not losing it's value and is easier to get hold of than dollars.

Are you serious? inflation is everywhere? hello?

There is inflation as long there is such thing as fiat, maybe the inflation at current situations is lower then u.s. which I highly doubt. But the main focus in india isnt noticed because theres no start ups there.

Even here in the silicon valley, regular people only heard of bitcoin so its obvious in the 6 years of growth it needs some marketing..

You never know what will happen later. I think it will happen soon. I think some people have already Bitcoin in India.
And that is very good. The world is becoming more digital and that is also very good for Bitcoin.

No the reason is that the people at there in India are not still well aware with bitcoin, bitcoin is an interesting and well profiting currency so anyone who know well about it, adopt it without any fear.

Im member of zebpay, i get update everyday, i think india is good market for bitcoin, i can see most of indian people interesting in technology, maybe  in future india market have a great volume for bitcoin trading.

Why not? As far as I know people there are pretty much into techonolgy and I think that they are also the country with the largest number of mobile phones per one inhabitant in the world, so why not the Bitcoin too? It's a very large "market".

As said India can be considered as the best place for the growth of bitcoin technology in the future. It has got all sort of people with some knowledge in technology which is required for bitcoin usage.

I think bitcoin in india has very weak potential since the government would very much ban or reduce it's potential with awkward legislation's, They usually are not supportive for worldwide currencies like that IMO...

India will have soon Bitcoin. The world is becoming more digital and that is very good for Bitcoin.
And everyone will have better. Many people will become in the future more richer and that is very good.

If the reason was that then why not Chinese adopt USD?
If the people of India were given the same opportunities and facilities that are in China then it will adopted on the same rate in India as in China.

Maybe BTC will progress in India. Who knows? You said that's india is progressing so fast, maybe btc in india will start soon . ??? ???

Yes its marketing can promote it well there in India, the people at there who know about bitcoin will have to train the other people about the use of it and its earning methods, then there it will be adopted on a large numbers.

There in India the digital world  has more fame and more people are interested in internet, the thing which is of need, there in India the Computer colleges and academies must have to give knowledge about bitcoin to all of its students.

But for that the people working in  those institutes should be aware about the bitcoins then only then can guide them, and if they are not aware about it too then we cannot expect anything from them.

That´s not new why don´t you think there isn´t any store that accepts the bitcoin in that kind of country.
Because they don´t even has enough normal gold. The best way to reach them is to make sure the coin gets many more publicity.

I think majority of youth in India are aware about bitcoin and already part of this forum, the only issue is that there is no physical shop that accepts bitcoin as a mode of payment.

AS you now you see that Bitcoin is rising in population and that is nice there are now more people all over the world that is using Bitcoin and that is perfect for the currency.
But they have to learn how to use it and sometimes it is hard to know that but just learn also from your mistakes.

Majority of People from India are not aware about the bitcoins yet, and even if they have heard about it many of them prefer to stay away from it as they lack knowledge how to get into it and start using it.

Well, it's just like in my country. bitcoin in my country is not well known, they only say bad about bitcoin if they see

The current minister of the Reserve Bank of India  was the responsible behind driving Paypal out of India and also introducing In INDIA the BITCOINS
Currecny

I am from India and I don’t think so. Yes, it will take time for common people to use it frequently but it’s not really that big not really that loooong time. There are almost 10,000 people using bitcoins in India (a country with 1.25 billion population having majority of citizens under age 35).

So instead of considering it as obstacle, I would see it as a golden opportunity. Now to build awareness about bitcoin, we need to spread technology of digital payments (which is different from bank) it’s something digital wallets with fiat in it. Once people understand and get used to it then it won’t be much tough to adopt bitcoin for them.

Considering current government’s approach, potential of young population, development of bitcoin and efforts of current bitcoin users, I think it’s not that loooong.

i am a indian and i joined bitcoin network in 2010year i know every possibly normal humans in india they belive in bajks but not in bitcoin they say its a ponzie scheam or will became one soon i belive they are not understanding or dnt want to.

To be honest even I was not aware about bitcoin in 2010, I joined in 2015 and successfully earning bitcoins at a moment, and even in my country the scenario is same as of yours.

Isn't it banned in some parts of India?
I thought I saw a post about it's use is not allowed in certain areas which I find strange.

...

Are there any Bitcoin ATMs or exchanges in India?  How about members of localbitcoins -- say outside of Mumbai or New Delhi?

Being able to purchase Bitcoin seems to be of prime importance for it to grow in India.

*   *   *

What physical items can be bought with Bitcoin in India?

Merchant acceptance of Bitcoin seems to be the other matter of prime importance.

If I'm not wrong, they didn't ban any part of India, but no mainstream businesses are accepting bitcoins as payments. Also, very less people know about bitcoins and their benefits in India. As of now, bitcoins are used mostly in online gambling, so not many people know about bitcoins in the world itself, not just in India.

I would agree on a certain terms with you, but ofcourse considering the age of this post there has been recent changes and mass exchanges of Bitcoins happening by over 50,000 people in India and over 30,000 actively trading (as per a report by Moneycontrol). I understand this isn't a big number considering the overall population size, but if adoption slowly starts increasing, we may soon start to see it at many places.

why you say in india not long time
its india and nepal its not understand not hear about bitcoin so what, your have bitcoin  you can sell international market exchanger, btce, huobi,okcoin and much more exchanger
what is your benifid its say bitcoin not for long time ?, your say not longterm is indian people follow your sugest and sell all bitcoin
price bitcoin will down

Expect people from 3rd world countries to adapt to bitcoin probably a decade late compared to people from 1st world countries.

hello,

There are no bitcoin ATM untill now anywhere in India as per my knowlege. But we can buy from firms such as Unocoin and Zebpay which work like exchanges but only deal in exchanging bitcoin for Indian Rupee and Visa versa.

I have seen the mobile phone explosion in India and how people started using GPRS. 2G/ 3G and apps such as whatsapp and facebook. It was, quite frankly very surprising for me. It started with the young generation taking it up and then slowly it gained mass popularity.

I believe that will be the same case. I know fee people who deals with bitcoin India, even they consider it as investment and they don't use it for payments. I personally came into cryptos  and my first transaction was with doge coin. The reason was doge is cheaper and faster.

I can say that in the next 5 to 10 years we can see a big explosion of bitcoins in India. Especially with the Digital India programme of PM Modi.

That's true I am from India and very few people are using it, they  have heard about it but don't prefer to invest their  money in it as they have fear of loosing it in long run.

there is no doubt about this that India and Pakistan are the to big population countries, but it is also a fact that bitcoin is still not so much popular in these two countries, if the bitcoin is introduced there hope that more people will join the world of bitcoin and the number of bitcoin users will really be increase, although some people from these countries are using bitcoin but there are very limited shops who are accepting bitcoin in their shops,

I think bitcoin growing internationally. and if India does not allow the circulation of bitcoin then people in India still can deal. as long as they have internet access then they can do anything.

Yeah bitcoin is decentralized currency and anyone can use it, if they have access to internet then using bitcoin is not a big deal, and they can use even if they don't get support from the Government.

Just to inform everyone.... The governor of the Reserve Bank of India (Raghuram Rajan) has been replaced with Dr. Urjit R. Patel. Rajan was fiercely against BTC, and he closed down many BTC-based ventures in India. I don't know much about the new governor, but I just hope that he will be more sympathetic to our cause.

It's interesting to see how the new governor will treat bitcoin and overall cryptocurrency. I think Rajan was the reason of restrictions on paypal and other such services.

Now let's see how prime minister's monetary schemes like Digital India, Focus on cashless transactions & foreign investment policies takes place. Since there are 75%+ chances of reappointment of current prime minister Mr.Modi for 2019 to 2024 in elections, any decisions will have long-term impact.

There are also allot of people in idia using bitcoins i dont know how much but what i know is that india is growing allot the last years so the bitcoin will also grow over there

Also india is a growing country they growed allot in the past view years and you can see that by all kind of things internet infrastructure everything is ghetting better so the bitcoin also growing over there.

i think that it is a really good thing, in my opinion india might become even stronger if people will adopt the bitcoins as their currency

Yeah that's a great news for Indians and the population of India is very high so even is small percentage of people will start using it then it can have a great impact on the price of bitcoins.

Dude, take a look of the age of people you ask.
Bitcoin is born on 2009, just peoples 17 - 35 yo with intensive online activity will know it.

I think the bitcoin is still very young. More people will know that as time goes on and more people will invest in it.

Yes you are absolutely right, Bitcoin is the currency of the next generation. When the next generation will grew up, they will only have bitcoins as the mode of transaction and perhaps by then Fiat will be ended.

i think bitcoin is good in India, as a lot of people in India are using bitcoin. but i think if we compare the population of India with the number of people who are using bitcoin, there is big difference, i think there sill people need more information about bitcoin and should be introduce in such an where most of the people have no idea.

If that is really true then we cannot say that india is on its track of development because now the world is shifting to digital world and on that world everyone know about bitcoin so in that case if someone do not know about bitcoin then i do not we have to call them as successful or developed.

I think not only on you. but I see a lot of countries are beginning to look start using bitcoin. perhaps only a few people in a country. but I'm sure it will grow :D

But I heard india has relatively many young people.

so that's a good thing.

I was thinking that in such country as India where lot of people live poor life Bitcoin has to be very popular. Yes not everyone can allow to buy a computer or telephone there, but those one who has it, for that person bitcoin would be nice way for undervorking and making money. Well, as in any other country where 100-200$ per month means as good salary.

well, bitcoin will very helpful for the poor people in Indiana because comparing with their currency bitcoin will be more valuable, and i think for accepting bitcoin is not needed a super computer for to do that.

Maybe your asking the wrong kind of people/generation and also the pool of people you asked is too small to actually make a judgement.
If you take a pool of 100 people between 20-30 then alot more people would say they know it then instead 18 people between 30-60.

In our India, Bitcoin is only familiar to people related to IT Sectors.

Its unfortunate that indians are not familiar with bitcoins when neighbour country china dominates in Bitcoin mining.

Indians must be made familiar to bitcoins through social websites.

There is a huge population of middle class people  who still dont know the potential of bitcoin and how dramatically it could change their lives

I think this applies in most countries. Bitcoin needs yet to get traction to other sectors.
So far IT is ruling in the bitcoin user scene. But then India has a very large IT sector so it may be the perfect country for bitcoin adoptoin.

India is a big country and to speak about it by visiting it for a short trip is not sensible.I agree that bitcoin may be more popular in china but indians are also catching up fast with bitcoin

India is huge. You can't say that from a small little experience like a quick visit. Jeez.

India has also a relatively high growth rate, so India could even be the first country to accept bitcoin as a nation.

India could not be the first country to accept bitcoin as a nation. It might happen to a small country like with only a few millon people.

I've encountered Indian people in gambling sites, most of them can't speak English that well, though. But they say that they really are Indian. In addition, in Facebook groups, I often see Indian people. Maybe it was just because of the area of India that OP visited. Because as I see it, there's a lot of Internet users from India.

However, even if a country hasn't been invaded by Bitcoin yet, it'll eventually come to a time when people from that country gets informed about Bitcoin. It's just a matter of time.

No need to generalize. In my area, there are a lot of Bitcoin traders (in Localbitcoins) who are aged 50 or above. My cousin is just 15-years old, and his Bitcoin holdings are quite impressive. It is true that the 17-29 age group accounts for the majority of the Bitcoin users. But usage is spreading across race, age, and gender. And that is a very good sign!

Bitcoin should be everywhere available globally we have the freedom of using it if they would take away the rights to be part of a bitcoin community then it would be dictature.

As you said, i am surprised about that in India, mostly people don't know about Bitcoins, because so far as i know, a huge number of the people know about bitcoins, because i have a lot of friends on Facebook and they belong to India, and all of them know about bitcoin very well, even they guide me, So i am surprised as you said.

Considering this thread was made in 2015,I could say a lot has changed since then.You could visit the Indian exchange section of LocalBitcoins and see that it's almost available with buyers/sellers.I agree it hasn't reached to a point where the general public understands what bitcoin is,but certainly a lot of young entreprenurs are coming up with new ventures promoting Bitcoins in India.

Being a regular visitor to India, I have used Localbitcoins in that country quite a few times. Some of the traders are quite good and well mannered. But there are some who always try to cheat. I faced issues in my trade 2-3 times. Although I got my coins back after disputing the trade, these incidents left a very bad taste. Never faced similar issues in my country.

Why does your English seem like you're an Indian ? :P You don't have to be in this country to use Localbitcoins ,you could sit in China and trade with a person sitting in India through localbitcoins.I doubt you have ever used it...Or you could just admit you're an Indian.

India is developing quite rapidly. It sings Bitcoin will soon be widely used there.

Bitcoin popularaity is developing day by day .and it may have happen that in the next 10 years the popularity will reach to a next level and the popular malls and shops would start accepting bitcoins ,i think we are going forward to that day to come .

...

It's good to read that BTC is catching on there in India.

Perhaps the time is right (the technology and Indian people are congruent now), and perhaps Modi's mishandling of the R500 and R1000 banknotes bans have both contributed to a more rapid use of Bitcoin there than I had anticipated based on my trip (as a tourist on a guided tour).

I see no real downside to India getting large into BTC, au contraire...

Things can change very fast in the world, it was not long ago the Venezuelan government was swimming in cash with oil at 100+ dollars, now with a lower price the government is struggling to keep itself in power.

India is not the only one country in the world that the peoples is not familiar with bitcoin.
Many third world countries is just knowing bitcoin at the community online. And you know, not all people can operate computer and using Internet.

Same here in my country. I asked around 10-15 person about bitcoin. And i leave them with a question mark iN their heads. I understand that since bitcoin is just starting to introduce here. I live in a province which technology is really old but not that old. Thats one of the factors that preventing bitcoin to know here. And ithink thats the same thing in india. Some remote area there dont enough knowledge about technology. Thats why only few people are using bitcoin.

Indians are not that unfamiliar to Bitcoin. Check the Indian section of Localbitcoins, and you will be surprised to see hundreds of users online at any given point of time. Also, there are a lot of Bitcoin-based businesses operating out of India.

terrible for Indians, but a very valuable lesson to the world....no one can declare BTC worthless

in fact those R500/1000 bills lost 55-100% of their value. BTC never did that even at the worst of times.  ;D

Indian are obviously not unknown to Bitcoin, but amount o users is quite less. Moreover very few peoples are interested about Bitcoin. Many people are familiar to this currency but their fear or lack of proper information holds them back from using it.
Also the exchangers charge quite more INR than the actual market rate.

I have heard that India is going to be number one by bitcoin users. India is the country of contrasts. In your thread you don't mention with what kind of people you have contacted there. If that was just turistic jorney then I'm sure that you haven't met anybody who know about bitcoin. I think the most bitcoin users in India are students of big colleges and universities and business people as well.

But there are countries with much less adoption about Bitcoins. India isn't too bad about Bitcoin informations... I see many of them on Facebook looking for HYIPs and fast profit methods with low investments. I risk to say the east is the place in the world with more Bitcoin enthusiasts at this moment, I see less prople from west using it.

India just has a huge population, and if just a tiny percentage of those people would use Bitcoin in the future, it would be a massive influx of new users.
That doesn't take away the fact that the majority of people in India are pretty tech-illiterate.

It's unfortuante that india is not ready for bitcoin yet, mainly because people is too uninformed to even know what it is let alone how to properly use it to store and move their wealth. A lot of people is going to lose their net worth because of government stupidity and gold will be confiscated if they try to go the gold route.

That's tight about that majority of people in India are  tech-illiterate and there are many people there who live under the line of poverty. But I also was reading about that India is going to take the first place by the number of bitcoin users. That's fact.

Perhaps bitcoin isn`t popular in India because there aren`t any miners.

There aren`t any miners because of high electricity price or the hardware is too expensive to import.

Maybe btc will become popular in India in the future.

True. I live in West Bengal, and so far, in all this time, I havent met anyone who has a fair amount of knowledge about bitcoins. Forget about using it in commerce, around 98% havent even heard about bitcoins. Some have heard the word "bitcoin", and either think that its criminal offense to use it, or dont even have an internet connection, making it impossible for them to earn/transfer bitcoins. I dont think there are ANY miners in India, as the economy of the people who do have knowledge about bitcoins, and mining doesnt permit them to pay the massive cost of buying ASIC miners, the huge electricity bills, and get so low/no profits.

The situation is the same in most of the other countries, such as China and Brazil. Bitcoin is not very familiar to the general population. But there remains a small core of Bitcoin users, who have kept the sector alive in these countries.

Some people dont know about Bitcoin in india

Hundreds of bitcoin sellers in a country of billions would qualify as barely anything and its not a small country so hundreds is nothing, mostly in a few cities I guess.     India is energy poor as I understand it, they have so far at least limited access to natural oil reserves or gas.   There is some but as mentioned the demands of the country are gigantic and so the price of energy there including electricity must be pretty high.   Ive never heard of hydro power being built large scale like the Chinese did, they also are not energy rich.

India has a great need for bitcoin in its stability, utility to business and distance from political based currency.   They also have great challenges to use anything reliant on telecommunications, I think India needs more infrastructure.   Its not an actual capitalist country as I understand things, maybe in future but its more nationalist based with lots of protectionism which means very slow progress

Thats because a lot of people there are not into technology. They dont know how to use new technology. We have the same situation here. My place we can say it is remote area and i think i am the only one here know bitcoin. They dont know bitcoin yet. So i introduce bitcoin to some of my friends because i think its a duty to make bitcoin to be known by many people here. But i have a problem. The technology here is too old. They dont know how to use internet. It will be a challenge for me.

People from India love gold so if the government tried some confiscatory measures I’m sure there is going to be strong resistance against it, that is why I think India is going to adopt bitcoin, if we explain them that bitcoin is like an electronic form of gold.

All people of course more love gold than bitcoin. It is not easy to explain bitcoin to new people. They just assume the same with paypal, it is not just happening in india, in my States also like that.

Bitcoin is already being adopted by many Indians. And after demonetization in India, many peoples are getting into Bitcoins. The acceptance rate of Bitcoins will be going further gradually. Not only they are uninformed, many people live in fear. Gold can be bought electronically also, but they by physical gold out of fear for feeling more secure.

i see that indians realize that bitcoin is become another solutions for their economic and they can use bitcoin for the payment, beside that bitcoin is really safe and secure than gold so i think this is a good to be adopt by other country and other people so we can make bitcoin more grow than before.

India need too much time to adopt bitcoin like China and Indonesia because here most of things control by strict government policies so they are not allowing peoples to involve in this right now  but some peoples trying to spread this which is very good signal

They might not use the bitcoin, but they can buy and hold the bitcoin.

Oh thats great to hear that you have visited India as i am from India and you are right still bitcoin is not popular in india.If you ask randomly to people about the bitcoin,i think not even one will know about bitcoins out of ten even the very educated ones,i hope this will change in next years.

Actually people in india are having a hard time for demonetization problems and apps like paytm we have to  make them understand and some people dont even want to understand them at all .so bitcoins is a long way to go .media should be active in this for bitcoins.

i think that if people in india are know bitcoin very well especially the wealthy people then most of them will be moving their wealth to bitcoin and then the developing progress of bitcoin in india will be faster than now
but unfortunately that in india it seem they don't have a corporate or organization which support bitcoin or which is created to inform people about bitcoin

main reason for the seemingly higher price in India is because of the smaller supply vs the demand. if they had a proper way of purchasing bitcoin rather than using localbitcoins their bitcoin price wouldn't have been this high. there is only one Indian exchange and that already needs a bank to deposit and Indians have trouble with their banks. so they seek alternative ways like localbitcoins and pay extra amount.

From what I have seen, Bitcoin has just wasted a great opportunity in India. Online payment options such as PayTM, Mobikwik, and Freecharge were able to enroll millions of users, ever since the demonetization kicked in. Unfortunately, Bitcoin couldn't make use of the opportunity. A little bit of public awareness could have done the trick.

Yeah, the information about bitcoin that less to attract lots of adopters.
I think India is same situation in my country where many adopters but not much enough to say massive, just about 0.1% maybe.
A lot of things to learn about bitcoin I realized from the first time I found it.
So, people may know if some stores or news discuss about bitcoin become an alternative payment.

True! Being an INDIAN I can understand your point. Bitcoin is not as popular as China because we don't have internet facility in every villages of INDIA. A large amount of people are still outside the reach of internet. That is the reason why majority of the INDIAN have not heard about bitcoin.

Also a large amount of our oldage population are simple not interested because they are not tech savy. The concept of bitcoin can only be understood by a internet educated person.

However, if you meet the younger generation of India who belongs from a middle class or upper-middle class section, you will see that many of them knows about bitcoin.   

We can't deny that a huge number of the every country don't know about bitcoin, only a few countries are here where bitcoin is used in a big place. But if i am talking about India, than definitely i accept that bitcoin really want to help to Indian's people, but instead of it, they are not showing their interest. Even in many states of India, we can use bitcoin in open market easily, but also for it, many people don't know about bitcoin, So it is really mean that bitcoin need long time required in India.  

No man, bitcoin trading transactions will still exist in India despite the government banned for citizens in India using bitcoin but the presence of dark-exchange sites will remain.

Yes, I agree, the government can not ban Bitcoin. And the Indian government makes it impossible suschestvovovanie its citizens in their own country. Therefore, more and more people are turning to the Bitcoin community

I am also from india. Most of indians are not familiar with Bitcoins. Most of them dont even have credit card. Most payments are by paper currency. If they start using Bitcoins, then surely it would create a great increase in demand for bitcoins.

As stated by the OP, bitcoin is truly an advancement. But when it comes to India, its not much familiar among the common people. Little by little things were getting better and recently a sudden and increased adoption took place when the country's currency went valueless.

India is a country consisting of those extraordinary. I am sure, if bitcoin developed in India, it will spread throughout the world, in fact I'm pretty sure that bitcoin can be used to the maximum, whether it is for individuals or for business purposes. I believe that bitcoin will last a long time in India.

I heard that some demonetization took place there and this gave bitcoins much more importance to black money holders there.
They just transacted all their cash for very high prices per bitcoin, but this won't last long. Still, this has gained some more focus of users in India towards bitcoins.

Yes it will take time but now I think it will grow at much faster pace because even government is promoting digital payment system.

People's trust on online transactions is increasing day by day in India hence more and more people are attracted towards Bitcoins. Soon India will also on the same track as china and Indonesia in terms of usage of Bitcoin.

If Indian government don't block bitcoin it can have great future there. First of all it's population and second cause of the financial situation to majority of people.

There are many poor people in india and many cannot avail internet services. While others who have access doesnt mind this cryptocurrency. This time bitcoin is new to India but later on when their economic system and their way of living turns digital, bitcoin will be appreciated and used. IF that will happen then we are also lucky since at that time bitcoin will be bought on a much higher price than this time.

This is something a lot of people forget; even though the Indian government is opting to remove the large bank notes from their monetary supply, there's still over a billion people in India and, if you look at the economic status of that country, there are a lot of people who don't have access to the internet, let alone an internet-supporting device. Bitcoin is a long ways away from being useful in that region.

Economic state of that region does really affect the bitcoin adoption because as you said internet access is not rampant on a certain area which means it would really takes time for people to engage and have awareness on bitcoin.If they would able to know crypto they would somehow improved their way of life.

You're right, but that the Government of India does not promote cryptocurrency. The government prohibits it. A people can not be trusted Bitcoin

I have a good set of expectations in my mind when it comes to Bitcoin in India. The population has an average age of less than 35 years and the efforts for improving digital literacy is being taken on very high level in the government. Recent cash crisis is proving beneficial to attract citizens towards cashless payment system, and if they can use cashless payment system in fiat, then they are almost ready to use bitcoin. Mark my words, in next five years, India will be among top players of bitcoin’s user group.

Normally, the governments in third world nations are not in favor of Bitcoin usage. China and India are examples for this policy. Tax evasion is a big problem in these nations, and Bitcoin is playing its part in helping people to hide their taxable income.

You are right, for countries with weak economies Bitcoin is a big problem. But the government makes it impossible for the lives of their citizens, and they are forced to look for a way to somehow survive.

With a polulation number of nearly 1.3 billion, India can turn out to be the next China in terms of Bitcoin popularity. Imagine what it will do with the price.

People will slowly start to realize that the government they are living under, isn't doing anything for them. If the government there pushes people a bit further, then it will only stimulate Bitcoin adoption even more.

I am quite sure that in the coming years it will be much easier for people there to take positions into Bitcoin. Right now it's still a fairly difficult task, but it won't stay like this forever. Fasten your seatbelts already!

They already adopt bitcoin in india to be honest they buying bitcoin plus 15% of additional to its original price if they goverment start imposing bitcoin then those people will not use bitcoin anymore. Bitcoin is easily to create transaction and can be send money worldwide with less fees not like another branch

No government would let anyone eat the whole cake while knowing that you are "stealing" tax from them through such ways out of which, bitcoin is one. But, even if government start imposing taxes on bitcoins, people could still use bitcoins there as the beauty of this thing will let them decide the price they want to sell it for, and not the government who will keep an eye just on their transactions' taxable amounts.

I am an Indian and Yes I agree to this . I will try to give some reasons why Indians don't have any idea about BTC .

According to 2011 cencus -> 68.84% of Indians  live in villages.  236,004 Indian villages have a population of fewer than 500, while 3,976 villages have a population of 10,000+.

I would say almost 50% of these people doesn't have idea about "Internet" itself . Its a unfortunate thing but many of us are trying hard to popularize BTC in our local areas as well as many ISP are striving hard to make people understand about Internet and how to use them .

Defintiely. For bitcoin to thrive first we need to get people internet access. Or, better yet, bring internet access through something that they already have, like a mobile phone that they already use on a daily basis.

There are bitcoin companies that are using SMS to send and receive bitcoin. You simply send an SMS to a mobile phone number and that will trigger the send/receive function.

However there is no incentive for Indians to start using bitcoins now.

In India you can easily buy or sell bitcoin for currency many people do that, but if you wish to use your bitcoins in order to buy some product it is near impossible. So there is trading but no usage.

i just heard from some indians that the price of bitcoin there have some sort of margin that makes it's higher than in other exchangers which is internationally known such as btc-e or bitfinex that's very unfortunately but the fact. if you know that bitcoin can be easily buy or sell in there why there's having a problem like that? i honestly really want to know the exact amount of bitcoin volume in 24 hours transacted in india

China is completly different from India. It has

1. Higher urbanisation
2. Growing wages
3. Public education for most of people
4. Have a group of people totally oposed to the government

In India we have none of those, which means no access to easy internet, no savings and not  even ability to read in many cases. And yeah political and global awreness help in getting the knowledge about bitcoin.

Dont get me wrong India is still huge market, but its nowhere near to be next China for bitcoin.

Yes, I also think that India is a long time to be able to catch up with China in terms of turnover Bitcoin and many other indicators.

i am not so sure about that, Indian are known for their online jobs and whenever there is some money to be earned online they are there. and investing in bitcoin is one of those cases, and because they are an under developed country to some extent it took a bit longer time but it seems they are catching up and adopting bitcoin just fine.

Well yeah you are right . Indians do participate in many online jobs and we invest in BTC and other related things but given the population of 130 crore only 1% or 1.5% are aware of BTC , the remaining have no idea about it ,so yes India is still behind most of the other countries .

The level of Bitcoin awareness in India is almost the same as in other developing nations such as China and Brazil. The percentage might be small, but the overall numbers are quite high, due to the huge population.

I'm pretty sure the vast majority of people in India I not aware of the existence of bitcoin. But a good percentage of India receive they payment in bitcoin for the stuff they do online and exchange it into they local currency. As you may know, a lot of people speak English there and is one of the top countries that is doing outsourcing for the west countries.

Should not be long they will ask to be pay only in bitcoin ;)

Yes I agree with you, I'm from India and I belong from a village and I know about Bitcoin that's why I'm here so we can imagine how fast India is developing. Many young guys living in urban area also do not know about when I talk about Bitcoin they generally ask one question what is this?  ;D  Sometimes I answer and some times I hate this question.

in china there are more people that are aware of bitcoin, this is simply because the largest mining operation is residing there, india joined the party from the moment their two big pieces of fiat note were banned

India is a very promising country for Bitcoins. But, unfortunately, the mentality of people is not yet ready to accept Bitcoin as payment.

Most of us we cannot understand how huge is the population of India and China today and we are looking only the percent rates. Therefore, easy we can find today population in China is about 1,382 bn and India is 1,335 bn according to http://countrymeters.info/. So as a member of the forum above told about 1.5 % its a very big percent of bitcoin users worldwide.  Hence OPs prediction is not representative because he is taking under consideration only the population of Nepal.

India is now trying opt all the aspects of digital transaction and recent currency change issue makes people to have look on Indian economy. Due to this I think bitcoin can largely implement in india due to its population. Example, if we implement bitcoin mode of payment in online store. People will utilize their bitcoins as a payment and a payment window.

Many people not just in India, but all over the world have never heard of bitcoin, and I don’t think they do want to know about it , they are used to using fiat for a long time and trying to bring something new to their lives and change their ways is a very hard thing , but the minority of people who are using it are just using it as another source of income nothing less.

...

When I started this thread, I had noted my own experience in India as a tourist, talking with some people there and our guide.  We were there, of course, well before Modi's decision to ban their two "large" denomination" bank notes (500 and 1000 rupees).

I am interested to watch India's evolution in their thinking and adoption of Bitcoin.  Yes, they have BOTH a huge population ignorant of Bitcoin (in the villages and rural areas) as well as their interesting High Tech sector.

Perhaps the same dynamics of Bitcoin acceptance in India might track the rest of the world's: that Bitcoin will grow only if there are more people who buy & use it AND merchant acceptance of BTC as payment.  The latter (those who will accept BTC as payment) may be the more critical factor.


More comments from resident users of BTC from India are extremely welcome!

I heard that Indian government are providing some new politic. Banknotes of large denomination declared a outlaw. And now they are creating same kind politic to the gold. With such way they are get and to bitcoin soon. They call this kind of politic as necessary in the struggle against corruption. But I think such methods will just rise the level if corruption in that country.

...

Things may be beginning to change there in INDIA!   :)

"Bitcoin India" just won a block (446511), it may be their first one:

https://blockchain.info/block/00000000000000000010900e720a97c1ae15033dd84f9653abb148efaaba6f26

Readers of this thread may want to keep an eye on Bitcoin India.

In India, the people are more wary about the security aspects, and also about the exchange rates. Even the government approved online payment methods have failed to get a good number of users.

This is done keeping the following things in mind
1. To stop corruption
2. To bring the Black money out .
3. To increase the use of Mobile wallets / online wallets .

After the ban of 500 rs and 1000 rs notes the use of paytm ( Wallet ) increased drastically . I hope in future the same thing happen with BTC.

The government has launched its own online mobile payment gateway, called BHIM. It has the potential to steal users away from PayTM. But PayTM is not going to concede. They will attempt to retain their users by giving promotional offers and freebies.

Majority of people in india dont know about bitcoins. Most people dont have credit card and so it will take long time for indians to adapt themselves to the digital currency Bitcoin. But when indians start using bitcoins, it would create a tremendous increase in demand for bitcoins globally.

Well whut is they usin' fo money over there?  Cash?  Y'all mean ta tell me that every punjabbi onna planet be usin' paper money an' dey don' have credit cards?  That seem a bit ree-diculous to me, but I can't verify my doubts from where I'm presently seated.  This one time ONLY, Imma hafta take yo word on thissa matter.

As per the latest stats, there are some 20 million credit cards in use, in India. This is a very small number, as the total Indian population is close to 1,300 million. But the annual increase is huge, in percentage terms.

then it's true that majority is not using debit card but its society are growing fastly to implement technology in their life as you said that the annual increase is huge,even though bitcoin still can be bought through other method and not only credit cards, the percentage of credit cards user in some countries have nothing to do with bitcoin

The number of debit cards will be significantly higher than that of the credit cards, and the government is also encouraging people to use them. But Bitcoin receives no such encouragement. The government actually discourages people from using BTC.

Even payments without cards are also being promoted/encouraged to use for paying. And about not encouraging BTC, the mindset of most people is to be safe, so most probably they wont indulge themselves with BTC.

In India, very few people are willing to use a payment gateway, which is not regulated or taxed by the government. That is one of the major roadblocks for expanding the popularity of Bitcoins in India.

Indian economy is cash-oriented. Govt is trying their level hard to get it under control and increase payment gateways more. Biggest hurdle is payment gateway fees. Nobody in india like to pay charges, especially when someone is spending his own money. Thus Govt must remove charges on online transaction / gateway payments then and then only there would "some" improvement.
* Next biggest issue is online transactions are traceable, and most of them regularly under-declare their income.
Looking at this situation cash is considered as safest way for tax evasion.
Digital currency / Bitcoin in India is at beginner level. There are quite long way to go. Many people are getting into it just because of sheer misinformation that somehow one could launder black money.

India government also bans their high value notes and also expects people wont invest in BTC. Its just not possible. If government want people not to invest in BTC, they should give lot of trust to their own currency. Only then people will refrain from BTC.

i was hear about bitcoin in india :o
its bitcoin legal on there ?

You're right!
If once in awhile I need to run to the bank and exchange my notes before they become banned, then I need to find a replace for the currency, and bitcoin is the obvious choice.
As a tourist in India, if I know I might get up in the morning when the local money I hold is worthless, I'll be happy if more business in the country will accept bitcoin.

Government of India has its own laws only encourages his people to use Bitcoins. Every citizen of this country will find a way to save their money, and Bitcoin is a very good option for this

It is neither legal, nor illegal. The Indian government has issued no directives targeting the Bitcoin usage. The tax authorities don't even know whether to consider the Bitcoin as a currency, or as an investment asset.

Nobody is regulating BTC in India but it doesn't mean it is illegal . Recently I read in a local newspaper about introducing BTC as investment asset to Indians so it means BTC is legal in India.

Slowly but steadily India is also catching up with the pace that is required . Will certainly take time but people are now more inclined towards virtual currency

Here it is necessary to act according to the principle - that is not forbidden is allowed. But I think the local authorities simply have not yet decided the fate of Bitcoin and therefore it is difficult to guess they would be punished for using Bitcoin or not

I have heard that India is number three by number of people who use bitcoin. And I also heard about situation with their paper money and gold. I am afraid government may put hands on bitcoin too.

Omg I think that bitcoin is ilegall in India and that is the main reason why bitcoin isnt really popular in India but I am not sure it is better to ask google he know everyting.

Not popular? I think more people are using bitcoin in india and i heard news in india affected because of bitcoin before..i think about banks..
And if you can seen here most of the users here are india and bangladesh.. this is what i just seen and even on myu skype almost my friends and contact are from india even i am just from philppines..

What makes you think it's not popular or unknown over there? Is it because of the Original Post and the thread title?
Do keep in mind that this thread was started in 2015. Lots of things could change during that time.

As for me, I think a lot of people over there are aware of bitcoin and many more will start using it. Especially
with the recent scrapping of the 500 and 1000 rupee notes.

Yes, lots has changed since late 2015.  We had just come back from an extended tour of India as tourists.

The .gov of India said they were going to issue NEW banknotes (R2000 I believe) at some point, but with their charcteristic .gov bumbling they have not yet done so as far as I have heard.

* * *

Just today, EUROPE may have upped the stakes in the Worldwide War on Cash (almost 100,000 views so far):

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-27/europe-proposes-restrictions-payments-cash

Apart from the fiat currency 500 and 1000 rupee note demonetization reason of people getting bitcoin, but their are so many users who are in bitcion and other crypto currency, their are so many indian exchanges where you can see lot of trade is going on daily. 

We shouldn't justify the things which we did not seeing yet happen. Besides it very normal for a starting something its not that easy at all. Who knows one day or next week people in India will become bitcoin enthusiast. Just be patience unto it.

Yes bitcoin is not illegal in India. I even saw one local picture here in this forum that there is a certain group that are giving lectures and teaching other people on the usage and value of bitcoin. Bitcoin usage in India is not really a big market compared to other countries but the most important part is that they are starting to use it. Sooner of later the bitcoin community in that area will also increase and expand.

After China,  India can be the next big market where you will find bitcoins more popular. If you analysis the root cause of china people investing in bitcoins you will come to know that their local currency is in a crash and people want to invest in something secure and therefor bitcoins they choose. Same is with india currecny and i see more businessman from india will convert their money into bitcoins.

Bitcoin usage in India is neither legal, nor illegal. The government hasn't introduced any legislation targeting its usage. And for the local Bitcoin-based ventures such as Exchanges and Online shops, it is impossible to open a bank account with any public or private bank.

The last governor of India have been interested in Bitcoin and its Blockchain Technology and have said that until the user dont use bitcoin for any illegal activities or money laundering the trades are legal. But still the most of the merchants are not ready to use bitcoin as payment option.

It seems to me that we should not be skeptical to the development of Bitcoin in India. This is a very promising country. In addition, the government is forcing people to find alternative ways to store and make money. It provides a basis for the development of cryptocurrency in India

It is true that the government is forcing people to store money in alternative ways and people are finding bitcoin as the new source of investment as evident with the price of bitcoin in India. Demonetisation has changed the concept of people and it will be hard for people to trust in saving their funds in banks with the events that happened a couple of months ago.

Exactly, after demonetisation people have started to hate banks as they were not satisfied with their services and their behavior and most of them switched to debit/credit card payments and if at this stage if they are made aware about bitcoins then I am sure they will stop using banks anymore.

There is no law written regarding bitcoin but that does not make bitcoin illegal which means it is legal  ;) If it is impossible to open a bank account with any public or private bank then how does exchanges like coinsecure and unicoin send fiat money to their customers.

Yeah, this is going to happen worldwide, in my opinion.  We're definitely moving toward a cashless world, and that scares me a little--but I still like bitcoin, which is about as cashless as it gets.  India definitely needs it.  But we're all going to need it or something like it if governments keep obliterating actual money (paper & coins).

Can you believe countries still crank out coins with copper and nickel in them?  It's kinda crazy.

Coinsecure and Unicoin are not doing it 100% legally. Sometimes they are sending out fiat from third-party bank accounts. Recently, they are making transfer using bank accounts registered with dummy companies. Don't know for how long this will go on.

India has a great population so we can expect that the users of bitcoin in India will be good in number. as majority of the people in India belong to poor families therefore it is a good opportunity for them to get benefit from bitcoin by investing a small amount in alt coins and get good profit after some time when the price of bitcoin goes up. bur for this they must have have the facilities of computer and internet, because i am doubting that still most of the people may not be able to afford the expenses of internet there.

I think Bitcoin is still at adoption stage in India, the main competition to its adoption is Gold and other solid matals, I read that Indians have alot of their investment in solid metals, since people believe in what they can see and hold unlike BTC that is in Digital state

Exactly. The boom in bitcoin transactions after demonetization was mainly by bitcoin traders and tech geeks who already knew about bitcoin but at this moment, the common man is getting aware of bitcoin at a slower rate as compared to that of other countries like china, USA etc. I think in next 5 to 10 years, India will be a major player in terms of userbase and transaction volume of bitcoin.

I totally agree with you , looking at the high level of IT personnel in India and the enthusiasm with which the Indian people attach to information technology I think it will be great if Bitcoin would be made known on a large scale over there because if India together with China dominates two-thirds of the worlds population and they happen to be Bitcoin enthusiasts then Bitcoin will be accepted by the entire world in no time it's enhancement would be secured.

Yeah that is true about India. Actually they have all the freedom they want but they lack richness about digital world. I mean India is Agriculture based country and more than half of the country is into business of farming so they don't really care about digital world. Yes government has reached out everywhere with Digital India schemes but people who live in villages enjoy crispy part and they don't really care about going all inside the virtual world or stuff like that. Moreover, the parts of cities which are into deep digitalisation are understanding the world for secure and safe surfing. They fear of going with virtual world because they are new to it (and it is obvious). I think there are sone companies who has taken the initiative to make bitcoin awareness in India (such as trading platforms and Indian Bitcoin Wallets). They will get used to it.

Bitcoin use in India should exceed China I think because a greater proportion of their population is below 30 and below 25.  I think its actually the majority of a billion people are in their youth not the elderly like the west often has a bias to.
That should mean great growth potential and takeup by the young more willing to adapt as a product becomes useful to them.
     I say India more then China at least in theory because China has had control of its population for years which means this country actually now has a falling working population.  I guess China has more wealth but I think believe it is India which might need it more.   India tends to place faith in gold more I think but you cannot easily transact that across distance so India in general is a slower economy.        Hence OP is likely right, they will take their time unless fate deals a hand

Bitcoin will reach India but slowly. It is developing country and government is making lots of changes to its economic system. I think India has 2nd most populated rank in the world but they have less infrastructure for new feature so people are little bit away from bitcoin I guess. But once they start understanding the bitcoin it might happen that India becomes top most country to use bitcoins in the world. Lol. As they have too much population after China. With good  relations with China it may happen they make deal to exchange of these currencies on large scale. Well one can just imagine but the effect would be good.

I don't think India takes the market next to China. Compared to China India has got only very small user base as well very small service sectors for bitcoin. During the demonetization India gained a enormous growth of bitcoin users. So I believe from that a gradual growth in the adoption and acceptance around the country might have begun.

I agree that the Information Technology sector is quite big in India, employing millions of people. But only a small part of these people are onto programming or developing. The rest are all employed in low level jobs such as data entry and digitization.

I would imagine they dont want to use btc now that fees are so high. Average wage in India in USD is 1,000 A YEAR. That means 83 usd a month or 19 dollars a week. They are not going to pay 1 dollar per transaction. They would lose all their money thay week for making 8 transactions.

Yes, very true.  It's too expensive now to use BTC in India.

When we were there in Nov 2015, I saw and heard NO evidence nor commentary on Bitcoin (OK, we were tourists in northern India, not in the high-tech cities in the south).

India has BIG TIME problems just with their currency.  If/when the Bitcoin Community resolves the scaling problem, India *might* have a bright future w/ BTC (later on), but we saw & heard NO evidence of that in late 2017.  NONE.

Well yes the growth in India has taken place and now more people are interested in India to know about btc and how it can be used. But now its upto govt and its authorities if they will legalize btc or make it a ban in India and this will make the future about btc in India. May be world is also now waiting and watching how does India react and make or break it.

I thought bitcoin is well known in India? Because I read some articles that people are investing in bitcoin in India as safe haven because demonization is still not lifted by the government? And if we could just get even just 1% of the total population of India, bitcoin price will definitely will rise because the demand coming for the Indian market is huge. I guess we are not seeing the clearer picture in terms of bitcoin usage in that country.

Most of the people doesn't even know how to use online banking . Bitcoin is way too far for "whole population " of India . Yes Indian market will impact a lot on BTC but I think it should be promoted in India . Trading must be educated first because not all know about it .

The government may not be supportive, but the people are taking to Bitcoin. In countries with high inflation like India, Bitcoin is a natural attraction. One of the exchanges in India - Zebpay, is adding ~2500 users every day.

http://profit.ndtv.com/news/market/article-bitcoin-users-growing-in-india-despite-rbi-concerns-1694857

Zebpay is not 100% legal. It has got some of the licenses, but some are lacking. So don't keep too many of your coins in the exchange, as it can be closed down at any moment. Until the government of India and the RBI recognizes BTC as a legal currency, you can't be sure about anything.

All of the business based on crypto are always in the gray area. I don't think if they were included on the legal business. As long as there will be no a rule to prohibited the crypto business and I can say still safe to run a business based on the crypto currency.

It seems to be a strange thing that china being dominant in bitcoin mining and its neighbour India have very less people who knows bitcoin.But things have started changing slowly.There is a discussion going on in government on how to regulate bitcoin.There has been a gradual increase in number of people using bitcoins in india.We could instantly change our bitcoins into cash using localbitcoins.com.

Partially agreed with op, but there is another thing which we have to accept is, bitcoin is known and is being used by a select few who are mostly tech savvy. If you bounce on any common man in the most developed world who has nothing to do directly with technology, you will be in the same mathematics.

Some people misinterpret about India just because of India is the neighbor country of China. But adoption level of bitcoins between these two countries are in two different extremes.

The same with my area too, 99% of the people don't no anything about bitcoin. The few people that have hear about bitcoin are those that are familiar with internet which only form about seventy percent of our country populace. People that know about it compared it mmm or pozin scheme. India is a great nation and they adoption of bitcoin will be a boost to blackchain industry.

That is the fact,you cannot expect everyone to use bitcoin but there will be a special class of users,who are technology savvy who will be using bitcoin and use its platform as a mode of transactions and to save their assets and with a country like India which is known as a technology hub,it is a matter of time that we see more people using bitcoin.

Wow that's weird. Indians are known to be techy, the IT support at my work office (large company >10000 people) are in fact indians. I have also seen ton of youtube tech videos made by indians, not many americans if you take an extra look, but it's the Americans who grow big.

How so? India is a poor country and if they get to be known as a country that's using bitcoin, they can give a bad name to large investors because they would probably think that the coin is for poor people. But all these can result as a good thing as well. If bitcoin finally resolve scaling issues and the Indian people are able to do microtransactions, then that means smaller business can adopt to bitcoins as well.

Unfortunately, none of these are going to happen in the foreseeable future. SegWit will never be activated. UASF? I don't think that will be a success at all. When you take a look at the global scale of the game, no one cares about microtransactions, only people that are outpriced for bitcoin which are just a bunch of small players.

They can still use bitcoin indirectly via alt coins.  The technology is still available just not that unique brand, I too also hope bitcoin refines their protocol to avoid elitism but even if they dont its not a reason why India is not going to use bitcoin.

The biggest factor is probably infrastructure, I dont know if Indian population has good telecommunications or not.  I presume they still require actual physical development in many parts for the general population to even be able to take an interest.
Then beyond that as a beginning bitcoin is just a hobby or past time, I dont anticipate them just immediately picking it up as part of business.   Its a venture that must propagate almost idly as education or simple experimentation.  We have already decided it has a use but that has to be recognised almost personally by India as a culture and likely its not close.

But as an end game I see BTC as more relevant to India then China.   India is far more a growing country, the reason I say that is demographics and the majority of the population is young.  This means a great pickup in use is possible where as China has a declining working population and a restricted amount of youth in comparison.  Obviously both are developing economies but India in theory at least has far more potential and would benefit more from btc