Indian experiment to ban large bills led to a surge of interest in cryptocurrency
You may have heard about a large-scale Indian experiment on withdrawing banknotes for 500 ($ 7.5) and 1000 ($ 15) rupees under the slogan of fighting corruption: this was announced on November 8, a few hours before the entry into force of the new rule, and On November 9, all banks closed for one day and shut down the country's ATMs.
Now Mahatma is supposed to smile only on small bills.
To make it clearer, in our country this would mean an instant withdrawal from circulation of all bills larger than a hundred rubles. The goals of the Indian government are good: to force undeclared cash out of the shadow under the threat of their complete depreciation. But the radicalism of the methods pushes Indians not only to switch to non-cash payments, but also to search for alternatives that are completely independent of government policy - including cryptocurrency.
Of course, the Indian shock therapy was not without unpleasant consequences for ordinary Indians, and especially for tourists:
')
In general, someone clearly thought out the reform is not too good:
At the same time, the idea is certainly not so bad - to push people to a more active transition from thick wads of cash to settlements by bank transfer. This will significantly impede the laundering of criminal proceeds on the one hand, and will accelerate the development of the e-economy, on the other.
But the barrack method of implementation - by decision-making, without warning, without alternative - gives all the worst features of state arbitrariness. It is not surprising that one of the consequences of this reform was the conversion of people to cryptocurrencies as a payment instrument, independent of the state and the mood of politicians.
Immediately after the ban of large bills in the country in Indian Google, the number of requests to “buy Bitcoin” sharply increased. The application of the Zebpay exchange surpassed 100 thousand downloads, and the head of Zebpay noted that requests for the exchange of bitcoins increased by 20-30% in a matter of days. The Bitcoin rate on Zebpay has already exceeded $ 1,000 the other day.
For another Indian startup Unocoin, which raised $ 1.5 million investment two months ago, an unexpected ban of the state turned out to be a gift: they launched mobile bitcoin wallets for iOS and Android just in November.
More traditional payment services are experiencing even more rapid growth: a surge in new users was noted by the Paytm mobile payment service, funded by Alibaba, a Chinese holding company, a week and a half after the ban, in which five million new users registered.
Another local payment service, Oxigen Services India, noted a 167% increase in per diem users. Thus, the reform of the Indian authorities seems to be pushing people in the intended direction - towards non-cash payments online, but as a side effect - makes you wonder what are the alternatives to the currency that the state controls, in principle.
Owners of a large number of cash rupees are not envied at all these days: in an attempt to preserve the anonymity of their money from the state, they too rushed to buy bitcoins. But, according to UnoCoin , one of the country's four largest bitcoin exchanges, none of the 2000 merchants and manufacturers cooperating with it accept more cash in exchange for a crypt.
So the increase in the number of Bitcoin operations in India is not a trivial attempt to hide the cache, but diversification of already non-cash assets in case of, apparently, other unpredictable moves of the authorities.
It would seem that to us, as residents of the country, who have been robbed by our own state at least three times in the past 25 years, the idea of ​​believing in the state provision of currency should not seem so perfect. However, the force of inertia of human perception is such that the majority prefers the state even realizing that feils are practically embedded in the mechanism itself, and the question is not in the probabilities of the next failure of financial policy, but only in terms and depth.
This is not the first post in which I write about cryptocurrencies as a crisis alternative to payment instruments issued by states - and, judging by the comments, people tend to imagine post-apocalyptic pictures when the one with the stew in the caches in the forest has accumulated more. In reality, crises look exactly like this: at some point, one state simply prohibits the circulation of large cash bills, and in another, its own currency depreciates twice in a matter of days. The world does not collapse - only trust in state institutions is bursting at the seams.
At the same time, as long as human society exists, it will need money. And in the context of growing distrust of traditional institutions, due to the unpredictability of state policy and the complexity and slowness of the banking system, the demand for cryptocurrency will only grow. In order to invest in Bitcoin and any other promising altokines, you don’t even need to be a cryptoanarchist in your soul - you just need to remember the adage about eggs and a basket.
PS In the meantime, the experiments in India are continuing. In the state of Goa on December 31, an experiment begins to transfer all operations to cashless settlement. The main priority of the authorities will be to encourage small traders - i.e. most cash-tied environments — accept payments using a mobile phone:
As you can see, here we are not talking about a attendance transfer to bank transfer, but rather the proposal of an alternative and its propaganda, but the trend is generally understandable. Roughly speaking, in order to force local merchants of seeds to go from cash to bank transfer, you need to jump over the abyss. And after that, to switch from non-cash rupees to the exchange of bitcoins - it is enough to step over a step.
Now Mahatma is supposed to smile only on small bills.
To make it clearer, in our country this would mean an instant withdrawal from circulation of all bills larger than a hundred rubles. The goals of the Indian government are good: to force undeclared cash out of the shadow under the threat of their complete depreciation. But the radicalism of the methods pushes Indians not only to switch to non-cash payments, but also to search for alternatives that are completely independent of government policy - including cryptocurrency.
Of course, the Indian shock therapy was not without unpleasant consequences for ordinary Indians, and especially for tourists:
')
So never in the ATM could not get . Queues for 6-7 hours and give in one hand at 2000 . We have not even been able to approach. Change for a bit dollars at the hellish rate. To my naive question, why not pay for purchases with plastic (most recently it was accepted all over India - from souvenir shops to village selpo); the spouse reports that the sellers now refuse to accept cards - both for train tickets and for the hotel, and for shopping at the grocery supermarket. That is, the effect of tough government measures turned out to be the opposite of what was sought. Instead of driving a shadow economy into the non-cash settlement, an excessive demand for cash was created all over the country and they drove out to the market those market participants who for 10-15 years had been quietly working with legal and tax-transparent electronic payments.
In general, someone clearly thought out the reform is not too good:
At the same time, the idea is certainly not so bad - to push people to a more active transition from thick wads of cash to settlements by bank transfer. This will significantly impede the laundering of criminal proceeds on the one hand, and will accelerate the development of the e-economy, on the other.
But the barrack method of implementation - by decision-making, without warning, without alternative - gives all the worst features of state arbitrariness. It is not surprising that one of the consequences of this reform was the conversion of people to cryptocurrencies as a payment instrument, independent of the state and the mood of politicians.
Immediately after the ban of large bills in the country in Indian Google, the number of requests to “buy Bitcoin” sharply increased. The application of the Zebpay exchange surpassed 100 thousand downloads, and the head of Zebpay noted that requests for the exchange of bitcoins increased by 20-30% in a matter of days. The Bitcoin rate on Zebpay has already exceeded $ 1,000 the other day.
For another Indian startup Unocoin, which raised $ 1.5 million investment two months ago, an unexpected ban of the state turned out to be a gift: they launched mobile bitcoin wallets for iOS and Android just in November.
More traditional payment services are experiencing even more rapid growth: a surge in new users was noted by the Paytm mobile payment service, funded by Alibaba, a Chinese holding company, a week and a half after the ban, in which five million new users registered.
Another local payment service, Oxigen Services India, noted a 167% increase in per diem users. Thus, the reform of the Indian authorities seems to be pushing people in the intended direction - towards non-cash payments online, but as a side effect - makes you wonder what are the alternatives to the currency that the state controls, in principle.
Owners of a large number of cash rupees are not envied at all these days: in an attempt to preserve the anonymity of their money from the state, they too rushed to buy bitcoins. But, according to UnoCoin , one of the country's four largest bitcoin exchanges, none of the 2000 merchants and manufacturers cooperating with it accept more cash in exchange for a crypt.
So the increase in the number of Bitcoin operations in India is not a trivial attempt to hide the cache, but diversification of already non-cash assets in case of, apparently, other unpredictable moves of the authorities.
What does all of this mean
It would seem that to us, as residents of the country, who have been robbed by our own state at least three times in the past 25 years, the idea of ​​believing in the state provision of currency should not seem so perfect. However, the force of inertia of human perception is such that the majority prefers the state even realizing that feils are practically embedded in the mechanism itself, and the question is not in the probabilities of the next failure of financial policy, but only in terms and depth.
This is not the first post in which I write about cryptocurrencies as a crisis alternative to payment instruments issued by states - and, judging by the comments, people tend to imagine post-apocalyptic pictures when the one with the stew in the caches in the forest has accumulated more. In reality, crises look exactly like this: at some point, one state simply prohibits the circulation of large cash bills, and in another, its own currency depreciates twice in a matter of days. The world does not collapse - only trust in state institutions is bursting at the seams.
At the same time, as long as human society exists, it will need money. And in the context of growing distrust of traditional institutions, due to the unpredictability of state policy and the complexity and slowness of the banking system, the demand for cryptocurrency will only grow. In order to invest in Bitcoin and any other promising altokines, you don’t even need to be a cryptoanarchist in your soul - you just need to remember the adage about eggs and a basket.
PS In the meantime, the experiments in India are continuing. In the state of Goa on December 31, an experiment begins to transfer all operations to cashless settlement. The main priority of the authorities will be to encourage small traders - i.e. most cash-tied environments — accept payments using a mobile phone:
to pay for the purchase will not even need a bank card . To make a payment, dial * 99 # and follow the instructions to complete the transaction. Although cash transactions will not be limited, the initiative is aimed at developing a digital economy and phasing out banknote circulation.
As you can see, here we are not talking about a attendance transfer to bank transfer, but rather the proposal of an alternative and its propaganda, but the trend is generally understandable. Roughly speaking, in order to force local merchants of seeds to go from cash to bank transfer, you need to jump over the abyss. And after that, to switch from non-cash rupees to the exchange of bitcoins - it is enough to step over a step.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/399523/
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