When Will India Explode?

[Melbustus]

I thought this was going to be a nuclear topic.

Yeah, I was like, "When Pakistan gets nukes, most likely."

<ot>
Pakistan has been a nuclear power for a while. They have an estimated 100-120 nuclear warheads currently.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_with_nuclear_weapons
</ot>

[Dansker]

Too hot weather for them to mine, think of the cooling issues...

[antimattercrusader]

if only i could find a way to directly extract *usable* energy from heat, thus creating cool.. and energy.. well then money wouldn't be a problem.

[BitchicksHusband]

1. A lot of Indians are starting to get wealthy.  Also, many Indians in the US send money home and the situation isn't that great.  Sometimes the money doesn't make it for various reasons or the fees are very high.

2. And the Indians bought more gold than any other country, so now that gold imports are regulated, they need somewhere else to put their money that the government can't regulate.

3. A lot of Indians work in high-tech jobs, so the understanding of computers and encryption won't be a big turnoff for them.

So I think that India is ripe for bitcoin.

[Damnsammit]

3. A lot of Indians work in high-tech jobs, so the understanding of computers and encryption won't be a big turnoff for them.

IT Customer Service isn't exactly "high-tech"

[antimattercrusader]

3. A lot of Indians work in high-tech jobs, so the understanding of computers and encryption won't be a big turnoff for them.

IT Customer Service isn't exactly "high-tech"

No, but coding and software development is.

[BitchicksHusband]

3. A lot of Indians work in high-tech jobs, so the understanding of computers and encryption won't be a big turnoff for them.

IT Customer Service isn't exactly "high-tech"

High tech enough to have a PC at home and understand how to use it.

[antimattercrusader]

3. A lot of Indians work in high-tech jobs, so the understanding of computers and encryption won't be a big turnoff for them.

IT Customer Service isn't exactly "high-tech"

High tech enough to have a PC at home and understand how to use it.

1st of all, nice name. 2nd, yes. And develop software. I've hired several decent software developers on guru.com from India. Plus with my day job, I work with a girl from India and find her to be quite technically competent. They're better at technology than help desk support. 'nuff said.

[BittBurger]

With the Chinese driving the bitcoin market at breakneck speeds now, I'm kind of wondering when India will "jump on board".

Does anyone know much about the Indian market and have any thoughts on what is happening or will happen there?

I work with some companies in India who provide pharmaceuticals around the world.   I have repeatedly requested that they get on board with Bitcoin because I have to wire them monthly, with $40+ in fees.  The responses I have gotten from them have been strange and frustrating.  First they said this to me:

"pls click on the link, i am been trying different banks but as of now bitcoins are not allowed in india.
If there is any positive response i will let you know.
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-08-14/news/41409715_1_bitcoin-gox-virtual-currency"

I replied to him that there are exchanges he might be able to use which allow it conversion to fiat.  He replied:

"Here in india we are banned from using bitcoins for pharma exports. If we are found using bitcoins we will be banned forever ."

Made it sound like Bitcoin was known, and has already been completely restricted by Indian authorities.  I told him his information must not be correct.  He replied:

"I cant take cash out bitcoin for pharma exports. what will i get by telling a lie to you, i will loose business which i never want to do.
i will check again from a different state."

I asked him to check again (lol) ... he wrote back:

"https://buysellbitco.in/
I got a company who deals in bitcoins and it is working in india.
The charges are too high and it will not work out for me. They charge 50$ for a transaction of 7 bitcoins which is equal to 3000$.
Why cant you use western union or money gram instead?"

So either people in India are trying to scam bitcoin users or ... i dont know whats going on there.  Restrictions, excessive fees?  All seems completely backwards to what Bitcoin is all about.

[antimattercrusader]

Sounds like horse shit to me. But I don't know for sure. Perhaps I am missing something, but couldn't an exchange do an international wire into an Indian bank account, even with a "lack" of Indian exchanges?  (Looks alot like https://buysellbitco.in is an exchange tho....)

In anycase, check out this Wall Street Journal article:

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/10/10/one-result-of-the-feds-tapering-plan-surging-bitcoin-downloads-in-india/

Together, Brazil and India posted the greatest growth in digital currency downloads among the 30 countries with the most bitcoin downloads of all time. Across the globe, bitcoin downloads are still increasing, but at a slower rate–in the U.S., downloads of the digital currency increased 7.82% in the third quarter, compared with a 9.8% average for the 30 countries.

[BittBurger]

My whole point to him was:  "How does the bank know what you are doing anyways?  All they see are cash in cash out.  Sure, its to a bitcoin exchange, but that doesn't implicate what you are being paid for, specifically at all"

[antimattercrusader]

Indeed.

[Nagle]

With the Chinese driving the bitcoin market at breakneck speeds now, I'm kind of wondering when India will "jump on board".

Does anyone know much about the Indian market and have any thoughts on what is happening or will happen there?

I bet the reason you think of India because of its population is second to China, so the effect would be the same huh?

No, that's not the issue. The issue is that India, like China, has exchange controls on money. A legal way around those exchange controls is valuable.

Until 2012, India didn't tax gold imports. Now they do, at 10%. Hence gold smuggling. India has been tightening up their exchange controls lately, so if Bitcoin starts being used as a way to convert rupees to something more useful outside India, there will probably be Bitcoin controls.

China, on the other hand, is loosening their exchange controls. The economy in China is so strong they don't really need them.

[RenegadeMind]

1. A lot of Indians are starting to get wealthy.  Also, many Indians in the US send money home and the situation isn't that great.  Sometimes the money doesn't make it for various reasons or the fees are very high.

2. And the Indians bought more gold than any other country, so now that gold imports are regulated, they need somewhere else to put their money that the government can't regulate.

3. A lot of Indians work in high-tech jobs, so the understanding of computers and encryption won't be a big turnoff for them.

So I think that India is ripe for bitcoin.

Those were some of my suspicions. I'm not well acquainted with the Indian market though, but it seems like bitcoins are a fantastic fit for it.

[Notanon]

I imagine quite a few Indians wanting to send money back to their families in India from Australia would see the benefit in using Bitcoin as a lower fee means of transmitting it.

[vandeam]

Wonder the traffic https://buysellbitco.in/ recieves.

http://www.trafficestimate.com/buysellbitco.in

[xDan]

...stuffs...

JCM Pharmacy take Bitcoin, not sure where they are based but they ship from India at least.

[MaxBTC1]

I was asking myself this exact question the other day.

Their interest will be proportional with their wealth, however in India you are either very rich or very poor - currently the very rich are not buying bitcoin.  But that will soon change, if and when we hit < $1000 p/btc.  

Its important to remember that India has a population of 1.2bn...just a small increase in publicity and btc could really get big over there.

[RenegadeMind]

Its important to remember that India has a population of 1.2bn...just a small increase in publicity and btc could really get big over there.

That's the thing. With so many people, a bit of bitcoin publicity could spark a massive upsurge in adoption. 1.2 billion people is simply massive.

A better local exchange might help, but I don't know enough about their banking system to comment on what would make buying easier for people there.

[btc_enigma]

Still long way to go. Seems like due to some restrictions put by Indian government , we still don't have a proper btc exchange website. (People are still doing p2p trading). Volumes are probably less than 10BTC a day.