Topic: Bitcoin could see a surge in demand from India (Read 2001 times)

http://www.forexminute.com/bitcoin/global-bitcoin-conference-2013-to-be-held-in-bangalore-india-14513

The organizers of ‘Global Bitcoin Conference 2013’ claim that India is one of the fastest growing Bitcoin communities in the world and such an event was expected for long. To be held on December 14, 2013, in Bangalore, the event is being promoted on a large scale as the speakers from international bodies like Buttercoin, Monetas, BitPay, Mt. Gox, LocalBitcoins, Bitcoin Foundation, CoinDesk, Global Bitcoin Alliance and Kipochi are being roped in.

Some Indian Bitcoin companies that will be sending their speakers include BuySellBitcoin, CoinMonk, and UnoCoin. Like all other Bitcoin conferences held around the world, India conference too will be focusing on the challenges and opportunities for Bitcoin in the second largest populated country and one of the biggest economies in the world.

From the list of the organizations that have been invited for Global Bitcoin Conference 2013 in Bangalore, India, it looks like the organizers are set to leave lasting impressions among Bitcoin enthusiasts. The event is expected to help people know about the virtual currency and how it can bring about changes in altering the landscape of the global economy and fiat currencies.

India yet Undecided on Bitcoin

There has been unprecedented growth in terms of popularity of Bitcoin; however, the Indian government and in particular the Reserve Bank of India, is undecided. India would like to wait before putting in place any guidelines related to the currency as was told by RBI that it is watching and learning about the developments in Bitcoins but not regulating it.

I don't see India as a whole adopting something as radical as bitcoin. There is also the problem that acquiring bitcoin is quite difficult as they lack the infrastructure to do so effectively.

BTC will see a moderate surge only in India; If the surge has to be phenomenal, the Indian BTC exchanges must enable BTC to Gold conversion as GOLD is FUNDAMENTAL to Indians and to INDIAN ECONOMY. Pls see www.milligold.org

The rupee fall affects the common Indian citizen. Tell me how you expect the common indian auto driver to understand the concept of Bitcoin especially after the fraudsters like Sharadha Groups were exposed ?

I hope so, cause more adoption = higher price

Hopefully there has been some press about Bitcoin in India?  I think that many of the younger generation, thanks in part to outsourcing, are very computer literate and would be very open to Bitcoin if it was easy to invest in for them.  We will see anyways.

http://thegenesisblock.com/bitcoin-in-india-drivers-and-barriers-to-adoption/

Offtopic, but maybe someone can send up a bitcoin donation fund for this unfortunate woman. Found this when reading up on india economic problems.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/24/world/asia/india-gang-rape-arrest/

Maybe India is the right challenge to create a better system as brain wallets
and payment service points.

With respect to lacking electricity infrastructure and low prevalence of smartphones, India could be a great place to innovate off-chain transactions systems. Something like the Kipochi system in Kenya, which is basically an M-Pesa/Bitcoin gateway where the users transact off-chain and Kipochi handle backend blockchain settlement.

Thanks, I agree as far as mass adoption goes; hopefully bitcoin will benefit the masses there in the long run.

However I was referring more to current events in India and the possibility that bitcoin could soon become a viable option for the wealthier class to avoid some of the recent regulation such as capital controls, curbs on gold importation, etc.

Indians with their money in gold instead of rupee must be smiling right now.  Bitcoin adds the benefit of easily bypassing government capital controls too.  There is a long and proud history of owning gold and being skeptical of paper money in the country.

The problems for Indian bitcoin adoption are large however.  Unless an easy to use bitcoin client is available for very basic mobile phones most Indians could not afford to own, transmit and receive bitcoins.  The country is plagued by frequent blackouts (every PC has a UPS) which may undermine people's trust in a purely electronic currency.  

I'm just speculating here, but the situation in India is becoming increasingly favourable to bitcoin adoption:

- rupee has fallen to record lows against the usd;
- new capital controls imposed (Aug 14th) to stop cash flowing out of the country and stem the decline of the rupee;
- gold buying manipulation;
- stock market plunging;
- bonds near 10%;
- India's economy seems to be on the brink of financial crisis.