India Lags Behind in Blockchain Innovations due to Regulatory Curbs
Blockchain development in India is at its full pace. Startups undertaking blockchain as their core technology are increasing, creating a rise in demand and as well as supply. Yet things look promising to the founders of some Indian tech startups.
India might be behind the US and Chinese giants in blockchain innovations and developments, according to some experts. The views are from the founders and stalwarts of the Indian blockchain landscape.
One reason for this could be that the leaders keep their focus on just one side of the distributed ledger technology and fail to have an exhaustive understanding of it.
The (Indian) regulatory ecosystem is…not (focusing) on decentralized systems like smart contracts, so innovation will not happen at the same pace as in those countries who do allow for experimentation in such aspects of the technology,
says Nitin Sharma, CEO of Encrypt Blockchain.
They believe this in the light of regulatory responses and attitude of federal councils towards the initiatives and undertakings in the blockchain. India earlier brought in the bill for Banning of Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency, which encouraged research around distributed ledger technology but while delegitimizing the cryptocurrency operation as an alternative to traditional currencies.
According to the founders, the Indian counterparts of the blockchain revolution will be exigent on exposure to cutting-edge advances in distributed systems, decentralization, as well as cryptography.
Although, “there will be a few gems in the Indian blockchain ecosystem where founders are able to build products frugally and serve the global digital assets market,” Sharma added.
The blockchain market will drift towards the private approved along with some hybrid ones, according to the analysts.
The founders also insist that enterprises won’t have much inclination towards the products by Indian startups because of the gaps of skill that exist between economies. The use-cases also aren’t restricted to the permissioned blockchain framework in certain economies.
Experts say that the largest trend in public blockchain for 2020 is going to the digital central-bank currencies or CBDC. Even the United States or China isn’t vigorously endorsing cryptocurrencies, but it looks like they will still surpass the exemplary innovation standards in the technology. The US has not banned cryptocurrency and has created a formidable capacity for regulation in it. On the other hand, the Chinese government is backing the endeavors to kickstart their private CBDC, according to Ratna.
Basic elements like smart contracts don’t work under current Indian laws, where digital signatures are centrally controlled,
said Tanvi Ratna, CEO, Policy 4.0, a global policy and regulatory advisory firm. India is falling well behind every other major country and it is a late mover even in CBDC, she said.
Gloss