The Reserve Bank of India's caution to investors, to be wary of using virtual currency because of the supposed security, financial and legal risks has cast aspersions on the popularity of Bitcoins. Ever since then Bitcoin entrepreneurs and enthusiasts have been working hard to build better frameworks for this technology to exist.
Coinsecure is working on a secure platform for multiple banking services through Bitcoin. The site that is in its beta, sets a price base for Indian buyers and sellers. We got an exclusive interview with the founder of coinsecure.in , Benson Samuel. Besides being the founder of coinsecure.in Benson Samuel is the moderator for the Indian Forum of bitcointalk.org, a website that gets 4,52,390 hits every day and has been a speaker at Global Bitcoin Conference one of the first Bitcoin conferences worldwide which was held in Bangalore last year. This is what he had to say to clarify some of the confusion on the subject of Bitcoin.
Krishna: So how and when did you get involved with Bitcoin?
Benson: Got involved few years ago. Was an avid gamer and Bitcoin was mentioned by a fellow gamer.
Krishna: Bitcoin is backed by Mathematics. When people are told this there is a lot of confusion, what is the best way to make them understand?
Benson: This article had a good explanation for everyone.
Krishna: How are Bitcoins priced?
Benson: Supply and demand. Similar to the way that gold is priced.
Krishna: Can individual countries control the value of Bitcoin?
Benson: Unfortunately, this cannot happen. Bitcoin has global scale. Coloured coins can be used instead as by individual countries to support their economy at a stable rate.
Krishna: Before the RBI circular, Bitcoin was out of stock most of the time at https://buysellbitco.in/ because people were only collecting not actually using the currency. Do you see this as a deterrent once a clear framework is established by the RBI?
Benson: The only thing being chosen at this point in time is the path that Bitcoin can take in India. Will it be embraced as a currency, a payment network, a technology or in the dark markets? The RBI may find it hard to create any form of clear framework with Bitcoin unless it decides to rewrite and change several laws. It would be interesting to note that not too many countries will take that level of ownership of a global currency. The path forward is based out of public interest groups that can maintain the checks and balances that Bitcoin sorely needs.
Krishna: Bitcoin exchanges in China started figuring out new ways to operate to stay in business even after the government's recent clampdown. Do you think Indian Enthusiasts will also persist?
Benson: Yes. Bitcoin has many uses. Money is just one of them.
Krishna: Bitcoin is not just currency, what are some other ways Bitcoin can be used?
Benson: Yes, Bitcoin can be used either as a currency or a payment system. It can be used along with multisig to eliminate several centralised access control systems. Sim cards can be replaced by Bitcoin. Community currencies and charities can be enabled by Bitcoin as well. These are very few uses of Bitcoin, it would take a lot more paper to document even a fraction of the uses.
Krishna: What's your view on Litecoin and other alternate Cryptocurrencies?
Benson: They are good pieces of technology that serve different purposes. I predict that 2014 is going to be a big year in determining which currencies succeed and which ones do not. As long as they allow an entry path to Bitcoin, they will be embraced by the Crypto community.
Krishna: Bitcoin enthusiasts now are not able to mine or buy at this moment. This is getting people more attracted towards Litecoin. What's your opinion on this?
Benson: It's natural. Litecoin came into play at a time when Graphical Processing Units(GPU's) were getting redundant with respect to Bitcoin. As Bitcoin grows too large for the average miner, newer technologies will be explored and if they have true use in the long run, they will succeed.
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