Should Blockchain & Cryptocurrency be Legalized in India?

A short and definitive answer is ‘yes’ but as the basic knowledge about cryptocurrency still evades people, and the colluded origin of Bitcoin is tainting the importance of Blockchain technology, it is an understatement to a say that the Indian government should holistically embrace Cryptocurrency and Blockchain technology. 

A potentially revolutionary prospect, experts aver that blockchain to generation Z is what the internet was to generation X in the mid-1990s. They are not shy to go on record to state that it could rebuild & redefine the global economy as well as annihilate corruption.

To understand the importance of this technology, we ought to delve deep into understanding the groundbreaking backbone that fuels this profound idea. Through the course of this article, I shall do my best to explain what has happened, what’s happening and what must happen, to make our country at par with the super developed nations.

Underlying Technology & Safety: 

Safety by default

When it comes to awareness, Blockchain has gained the reputation of a technology which is as arduous as rocket science to grasp, and nothing could be further than the truth. ‘Blockchain’ is the underlying technology, where information is stored in blocks which are connected to one another, and hence the title, ‘Blockchain'. 

Providing a platform for cryptocurrency to exist, blockchain is an ingenious system based on mathematical cryptography where peer to peer transactions take place without human supervision, like the government or the RBI. A decentralized trust-based verification entity, it is this peer to peer blockchain connection that makes it completely safe as one block protects the other in an endless loop and connection.

To provide more context, in a specific blockchain cluster, a transaction can be made only by notifying everyone else linked to the said cluster and if the transaction is rejected by one of the blocks, the whole chain of the transaction is rejected, hence making it completely foolproof, ergo mitigating the necessity of banks and governments supervising the process.

Assuming the technical nuances are clarified, let’s delve deeper into the adoptability of blockchain and understand why leaders like VISA and Mastercard are fervently developing the necessary technology to avail blockchain & cryptocurrencies for the masses.

In 2016, VISA managed to build strong blockchains capable of performing a few hundred transactions per second (TPS). What started as an ambitious goal, today it has expanded into a mammoth performer, churning out 15,000 to 20,000 TPS. Thanks to its blockchain technology for cross border, business to business (B2B) sectors, VISA is now a part of the $125 trillion global money transfer market.

In comparison to VISA’s 20,000 TPS, the unscrupulous Bitcoin transactions function at a rate of 7 TPS and the infamous Etherium transactions, at 20 TPS, which infers that there is much headway to be made in blockchain tech. As the speed of the transactions increase with the number of transactions made, cryptographers and blockchain gurus state that it is imperative for blockchain technology to surface to the mainstream and we have barely scratched the surface.

Unmistakably, Facebook, Reliance, and the Indian government have previously shown interest in cryptocurrency but it continues to be an uphill struggle to replace the ‘Bitcoin’ misinformation from people’s minds. It is an irrefutable fact that cryptocurrencies are surely susceptible to the changes in the economy just like the stock market, the success and prosperity are dependent on the acceptance and adoption by the masses.

Applications & Implications: 

Imagine an Indian software engineer working in San Francisco transfers $1000 to his father in Chennai via blockchain, cryptocurrency, the whole $1000 reaches his father immediately, without any service charges, as opposed to 5 to 7 working day delays and transaction fees. A $600 billion industry, remittance can be made as seamless as sending & receiving a WhatsApp message by eliminating intermediaries like banks and money transfer services.

Multifaceted Adoptability

Curbing corruption is one other major uses of blockchain where allotted budget is utilized optimally, without a hint of embezzlement, liquidation or wrongdoings anywhere in the chain of command and from the central government finance minister seated in New Delhi to a contractor who supervises a road reconstruction project in Marathalli, everyone has access and vigilance over the expenditures & transactions.

Not just money but transactions like stocks & bonds, contracts, intellectual properties and anything with value can be sent & received over the blockchain and this makes it a multifaceted platform for any & all transactions, and not just a foundation for cryptocurrency.

Shadowed by interesting innovations like AI, ML, Big Data, IoT, and others, Blockchain is quite literally the technological invention of the century which gives back people the control of their own money, property, and many more, and makes it safer than ever before. Movies like the Avengers is shifting the spotlight on to Artificial Intelligence and the Robot uprising hysteria fueling this farfetched notion, it is attracting unwarranted attention to the technology, when the attention is supposed to be focused on Blockchain.

What Must Change: 

1. Knowledge about blockchain & cryptocurrency must increase and the awareness of the difference between them must spread.
2. Governments must take a leap of faith and jump on the bandwagon to take the technology ahead, and this will be the easiest and fastest route to attain Prime Minister Modi’s corruption-free India goal.
3. Cryptocurrencies like Lakshmi and JioCoin must be given much-needed attention and joining hands with VISA and Mastercard will leapfrog these efforts.
4. Skepticism about blockchain in 2019 is juxtaposed with the skepticism about the internet in 1994, and we are all aware of the fate of anyone who didn’t adapt to the changes the internet brought back in the day.