Topic: Bitcoin in India? Not for a LOOOOONG time. - page 14. (Read 14697 times)

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

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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

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

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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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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’.

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.

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.