The list of problems that Indian residents have witnessed since the declaration of digital currency regulations as part of the Finance Bill 2022-23 is ongoing. From Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) suspending the UPI payments following the National Payments Council of India (NPCI) refusing to acknowledge the exchange’s presence in the country to all exchanges halting digital currency trading and moving their operations to Dubai—all happening within two weeks. And the recent news of an expected 28% GST on all digital currency transactions sounds like yet another nail in the coffin.
In a recent catch-up, India-based BSV entrepreneur and digital currency expert Rohan Sharan, the founder of TimeChain Labs, shared his insights about this ongoing chaos and confusion, the potential of BSV in India, and the BSV Global Blockchain Convention taking place in Dubai this week.
Does the current scenario concern you as an entrepreneur in this industry? When asked, Sharan pointed out that there are two sides to it.
“BSV is considered a crypto, and we pay the price by being grouped with it, even though we are entirely different from other currencies like BTC, etc. We focus on the utility of the blockchain and building innovative business models using micropayments and financial instruments associated with data economy, rather than trading and relying on trading prices to go up,” he said.
BSV blockchain can still supplement use cases that India needs, he continued, adding that only BSV can reach the masses because of its unbounded scalability and support for utility which is needed to onboard the masses. TimeChain Labs also does this by providing access to the blockchain for application users and developers directly from fiat.
“Access to writing and reading from the blockchain, and using all features of the Bitcoin protocol, but without the end users holding the Bitcoin tokens,” he said.
Sharan mentioned that the Indian government sees digital currencies as a financial threat to INR stability; therefore, it keeps on suffocating Bitcoin, disregarding its capacity. But there is a silver lining to these, which is that disincentivization/curbing of the speculative digital currency trading by the government leaves BSV relatively in a better-off position than other digital currencies, which rely solely on speculative action.
The government is also pro-blockchain utility as a ledger, having outlined it in the “National Blockchain Strategy” with a considerably impressive understanding of the blockchain in the “Blockchain: The India Strategy.” This puts TimeChain Labs in a unique position, he continued, to expand the use of the BSV blockchain technology in India, being a blockchain startup recognized by the government under its StartupIndia program.
Sharan noted that digital investors and entrepreneurs in India are in a survival mode right now, but BSV-based businesses are resilient, as BSV is very flexible and versatile to fit into any legal environment.
“Similar to Fabriik Weave, where the users are able to hold their ETH but build on BSV, TimeChain Labs also believes that it is the direction to go, not just with digital currencies, but fiat as well, and we will be making exciting announcements at the blockchain convention next week, so stay tuned,” he noted.
Challenges enterprises face when adopting blockchain
When it comes to embracing and adopting blockchain, several challenges come into play, but the main challenge is “making people embrace and adopt the BSV enterprise blockchain or blockchain in general,” Sharan noted.
He also told CoinGeek that there is a struggle with convincing the crowd that looks to get rich quickly by trading in trending meme coins that exist today, although he is able to get through to some people regarding the unique benefits of adopting and implementing the BSV blockchain.
He further said the Indian government is conveying a conflicting message—i.e., keep the blockchain part and kill the Bitcoin—and what is more concerning, he continued, is the way the country is using the BECKN protocol for the upcoming Open Network Digital Commerce (ONDC) project slated to be launched in August.
“It is no longer going to be the 10X advantage, because projects like UPI & ONDC reduce the disruptive advantage that Bitcoin originally had over traditional payments and commerce. It reduces the use cases that the BSV blockchain exclusively captures the market with. The gap closes further, the longer there is delay in adoption. Although there will always be a lead that the BSV blockchain has in terms of unmatched efficiency and capacity, since it is not possible to be more efficient than a bitcoin transaction, while being as versatile and customizable to support the registry of any type of asset or financial instrument on it,” Sharan explained.
“BECKN protocol and the rest of the IndiaStack is interoperable with the BSV blockchain, when used in the right manner. TimeChain Labs is committed to making infrastructure tools that enable the IndiaStack to behave as the much needed protocol layers on top of bitcoin that enhance the use of the blockchain, by introducing the standard transaction specifications for identity, discoverability, registry, invoicing, data and payments,” he added.
Is the world multichain?
Sharan noted that the world would certainly go through a multichain phase before it converges. Eventually, there will only be one ledger—for efficiency, and accountability, since having multiple books of accounts defeats the purpose of the blockchain as the authoritative chain of events timestamped and functioning as the triple-entry accounting ledger. Sharan pointed out that it can already be seen that blockchains like Polkadot come into existence to make multiple chains interoperable.
He thinks that some companies are using more than one blockchain mainly to attract users of those different technologies because that gets them more attention and increases their chances of survival, plus the numbers. Even though people building on BSV blockchain do not feel the need to be using multiple blockchains, he said, adding that the BSV applications perhaps also need to become interoperable with other chains and projects, not to compromise on its values or the technology, as it creates cross-pollination of access, ideas, and exposure of the potential of BSV to the people closest to it, but not yet using it.
BSV Global Blockchain Convention 2022
Sharan will be joining a panel, Build on BSV Blockchain: Tools & Platforms to Make it Easy, on Day 3 at the BSV Global Blockchain Convention in Dubai. According to him, “Dubai is a great location to host the blockchain convention because it is fast becoming the crypto hub with connectivity to the most business and leaders in the blockchain industry.”
When asked what he is looking forward to the most at the conference, Sharan responded:
“I am looking forward to meeting a huge group of bright minds, exploring partnership opportunities and learning about other businesses and developments that have happened as well.
I want everyone to know about the tools and applications that we have developed that are vital for any application to access the Indian market, along with the expertise that we have developed from helping businesses with integrating their business processes with the global BSV blockchain, that can range from consulting and technical advisory to architecture design and development for businesses wanting to build the metanet, Satoshi’s vision for the new internet.”
Don’t miss out the first ever BSV Global Blockchain Convention taking place at the Grand Hyatt in Dubai on May 24 – 26. Book your tickets today!
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