With India taking positive steps in taxing cryptocurrency, NFTs (virtual assets), the global blockchain community is taking note of it.
In the next few years, many reports suggest that India will become a major hub for blockchain developments since it is already a leading nation for blockchain professionals.
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In spite of the fact that blockchain was started 13 years ago after Bitcoin, many cryptocurrency projects have now been created, and people from India work on the majority of these projects.
There are various projects that have been started by Indians. One such project is the Polygon (MATIC) blockchain that is a layer 2 protocol on Ethereum blockchain and is currently one of the top 20 crypto projects.
Polygon solves higher gas fees problems that have plagued the world’s second-biggest crypto project which has over $327 billion in market capitalization.
In order to bring citizens under financial inclusion, the Indian government started a campaign in 2014 for opening bank accounts. Under this, over 420 million zero balance banks accounts were opened taking the total to over 800 million banks accounts.
As of today, over 300 million citizens are still waiting for financial inclusion, and with blockchain implementation, all people will also be included in financial inclusion.
Looking at this importance, the Indian government recently bought cryptocurrency (which the government calls it ‘virtual asset’) under tax ambit, clearing the doubt that crypto will be banned in India.
However, till today, the government which has come up with a Cryptocurrency Bill is on hold for over a year in the parliament. Hopefully, the bill will be passed in the coming sessions of the parliament after detailed discussion, it is understood.
Crypto experts believe that if the government allows blockchain companies to enter the banking & finance space, more and more people will enter this sector and this will provide a boom to the sector. This will provide an alternative to citizens.
Just to give an idea on how blockchain will change the banking & finance future in India: Today, banks are offering 5% to 6% interest on fixed deposits per annum, but many crypto projects are offering 15% to 20% per annum, some offer even more. But, as blockchain is a new technology, many experts have raised a red flag and said that, if the government allows it at one go, it can cause great harm to the economy.
That is the very reason the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has told the government to ban cryptocurrency. But, the finance ministry has been speaking to stakeholders including crypto exchanges, crypto project owners, financial experts, and others.
Banking-finance is not the only sector that will change for good, but also the education sector, where degrees will always be available on the blockchain, so anyone can verify it and save a lot of time. Even the logistics sector can be streamlined, as all the consignments can be tracked on a real-time basis by any parties, without anyone knowing, this will also save time and money.
Blockchain technology is already being used in foreign remittances right now by some banks in India. By using it, banks and consumers can save time and money in commissions and money can be received instantly.
Many state governments have already started implementing blockchain technology for land registries. Once land is registered on the blockchain, no dispute can arise in the future, saving the property holders from legal issues.
Blockchain strategy paper
Looking at the importance of what blockchain can do for governance, India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology under the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) in December 2021, released a blockchain strategy paper titled ‘National Strategy on Blockchain towards enabling trusted digital platforms’.
The paper said that by 2030, Blockchain would be used as a foundational technology for 30% of the global customer base that will be made up of things and these things will be used for conducting commercial activities.
By 2025, Blockchain would add a business value that will grow to over $176 billion and this would increase further to $3.1 trillion by 2030, the paper adds.
The government is targeting blockchain use cases in trade finance, legal, healthcare, IoT, cloud storage, privacy, insurance, crowdfunding, supply chain, and real estate.
The States like Telangana, Tamil Nadu have already released their blockchain policies, even the state of Maharashtra is mulling to release one and has unveiled its “Blockchain Sandbox ” to make e-governance much more efficient across the state. in February 2020.
Looking at these developments, blockchain technology is the future for the fastest growing economy in the world and it is at the forefront of adoption too, subject to government do look at cryptocurrency as a use case project that is built for a specific purpose and not to scam citizens.
