Fresh Bitcoin start-up Zebpay recently held their launch event called The Future of Money in Ahmedabad on March 19, 2015.
The event was a success with 400 people in attendance officially making it the largest Bitcoin get-together in India.
The event featured special guests such as Mrs. Anar Patel, daughter of Gujarat Chief Minister, and Nishith Desai, the founder of Nishith Desai Associates, one of India’s leading law firms (with customers like Vodafone India, Infosys, and Flipkart). NDA recently released a whitepaper on Indian Legal and Tax Considerations on bitcoins. Mr. Desai delivered a speech proposing to classify Bitcoin as a commodity rather than a currency for taxation and regulation.
Another major development during the event was the announcement of the launch of Bitcoin India Alliance, an alliance of all Bitcoin companies in India. The alliance aims to spread Bitcoin awareness and adoption in India through an independent body of Bitcoin experts. It also plans to represent the Indian Bitcoin industry to the government and other associations. This is certainly a much-awaited move, as the last official statement by The Reserve Bank of India, India’s central bank, left several aspects of the Bitcoin’s legality in India hazy. Through spreading awareness, they hope to help refresh the view of central bankers, and hopefully pave the way for entrepreneurs in the space who have been operating in fear of possible central bank bans.
The event was sponsored and attended by all leading Indian bitcoin companies like iGot, CoinSecure, CoinTelegraph India and Blockstreet.
Zebpay also announced wallet-based features and aims to not only enable users to buy bitcoins easily from their mobile phone but also, more importantly, use them.
This would be a noteworthy improvement especially considering the currently abysmal level of Bitcoin usage in India.
This is poised to change, as users of Zebpay are able to buy Flipkart and Amazon India vouchers at 10% off. Zebpay also announced it will be coming up with a list of India’s first merchants who will accept bitcoins. This will include a real estate company, a chain of restaurants, coffee shops, and more. They also hope to enable their users to be able to buy mobile airtime using Bitcoin.
The event was a required revival for the Bitcoin community in India and it is hopeful that it is merely the beginning.
