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5 sep 2014 bitcoinmensa binzmuhlestrasse

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People were afraid to even complain against him. Originally from Delhi and transferred to the UP hinterland, his speech is unguarded, often filled with exaggeration, and he seems to give little thought to the weight of his accusations.

Kumar had a problem, and the lower-level police were doing nothing to fix it. The robbery had occurred on April 6th. But the police had been reluctant to register a complaint, and even when they did so, almost two months after the incident, they were yet to question or arrest Bunty. So what was holding them back? It was not money, jewellery or any other asset—he had been robbed of bitcoins.

It is yet to be categorised as a currency, commodity or even a security. Kumar was a bitcoin trader in Agra on a visit to his hometown, Auraiya. But he knew all about it already. It was a shakedown. And he even got Kumar to transfer bitcoins belonging to his mother, according to the policeman. Bitcoins worth Rs 20 lakh were thus allegedly taken away.

All sorts of cyber crimes also. But never like this one. But otherwise, what do you do? Nobody understood it here. And according to the SP, he even confessed. For a long period, it was assumed that there was little interest or trade in cryptocurrencies in India. But if the Agra robbery shows anything, it is how quickly this virtual currency is catching on in India.

Bitcoins first emerged in the aftermath of the economic recession. On January 3rd, , a coder who claimed to be Japanese and called himself Satoshi Nakamoto created the digital currency for the first time. He had described the idea of a digital currency in an online paper the previous year. According to him, this new currency would be free of the machinations of bankers and politicians. Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely a fraction in reserve The rules of the game were spelt out.

This new currency would be controlled entirely by software. There would be no central bank or government but a peer-to-peer network to administer it. And a total of 21 million bitcoins would be released over some 20 years. At the heart of this decentralised digital currency is a technology called blockchain. This way, there could be no double spending. And people can either earn bitcoins by mining them: Or they can buy, spend or trade them.

Nakamoto would appear online for the next few years. But after , he has not been heard of again, thus becoming one of those big unsolved puzzles of the modern age. It has been theorised that the technology behind bitcoins is so supreme that Nakamoto must have been the alias of a group of people comprising world- class programmers with a deep understanding of economics, cryptography and peer-to-peer networking.

This mass adoption is going to happen soon. In the years since its creation, the value and usage of bitcoins have surged globally. According to a Cambridge University study published in April this year, there as many as six million people around the world who have virtual wallets where bitcoins are stored. In India, the bitcoin scene has been, until recently, in its infancy. There are several bitcoin exchange firms now that function like other trading platforms.

There are bitcoin investors and traders, bitcoin brokerage firms, places where you can pay for your movie, meals, clothes, or where you can recharge your phone in bitcoins. Along with the emergence of this new currency have come elaborate bitcoin scams and ponzi schemes.

Also under the radar for now are start-ups with business plans based on bitcoins. Taking notice of all this, perhaps, career criminals are joining the trend. Earlier this year, a kidnapping took place in Patiala for which, according to a newspaper report, the ransom was demanded in bitcoins. Zebpay, one of the largest bitcoin exchanges in India, has close to 1 million users. Two years back, Agarwal says, the company did transactions worth Rs crore annually.

Now it is doing more than Rs crore every month. Agarwal believes this is just the start. And it is going to disrupt everything we know. Zebpay was first formed by Mahin Gupta back in , under the name Buysellbitco. Like WhatsApp is for instant messaging system. We wanted something similar and simple, Zebpay for bitcoin exchange.

According to Sohail Merchant, a former bitcoin trader and now the founder of a new bitcoin exchange platform, PocketBits, the usage of this currency in India is growing rapidly and it will soon probably figure among the top four countries that use the most bitcoins.

The Cambridge study also mentions that bitcoin exchange volumes are rising especially fast in some countries. The biggest stimulus, it appears, was the recent demonetisation of Rs 1, and Rs notes. Although several bitcoin businesses try to underplay its effect, perhaps for the likely association of digital cash with unaccounted-for wealth, the purchase rates rose sharply in the period right after November 7th, Merchant also traded in bitcoins then.

Before demonetisation, he would see people buying around Rs 5, worth of bitcoins from him at a time. But after the announcement, he began to get calls to exchange several lakhs into bitcoins. So I insisted that each person can only buy bitcoins worth Rs 5 lakh in a day, and that too after sharing KYC [know your customer] papers.

This deterred most people. Later in December, a TV station carried out a sting operation showing how some brokers claimed they could convert demonetised currency notes into bitcoins and then get the money back into the financial system as valid tender. The increase in bitcoin volumes perhaps also had to do with rumours of how the Government could be planning a ban on gold imports, as the value of this metal also began to appreciate sharply. Something of this kind was observed in hyperinflation- battered Venezuela, where droves of people, trying to beat the wild economic fluctuations of their market, began to invest their money in this virtual currency.

An asset, although wildly fluctuating all the time, that could—based on past trends—yield higher returns than fixed deposits, mutual funds, gold and even real estate. To many, demonetisation resulted in a break of faith in normal currencies.

In money, everything is based on trust and faith. People will then start to buy gold and other things. Just 23 years of age, with one of those prized degrees in India— computer science—in Jaipur, he has forsaken a traditional career, much to the dejection of his parents, to trade in all sorts of cryptocurrencies.

There are several like him across the country who are betting big on cryptocurrencies. There is big money to be made, but it comes at a high risk. Agarwal warns that people should be careful when they invest in bitcoins. Prices are often volatile and people can lose all their savings overnight. But the likes of Nawariya seem unperturbed. That principal amount has stayed in bitcoins.

And over the years, he has pumped in more money into bitcoins. And if he makes a substantial amount in a sale, he deposits the profits in newer and cheaper cryptocurrencies, thereby reducing the risk of a fall in the hope that the prices of these other virtual currencies hold up well enough to make up for the loss and more , and puts the rest back into bitcoins.

Bitcoin prices have been on an upswing in the past few days. One unit was selling at around Rs 1. By August 14th, it surged to Rs 2. The prices in Indian exchanges tend to be higher than several foreign exchanges, because the demand for bitcoins is higher than the coins in circulation. Bitcoins operate in a grey area under Indian law. According to reports, a government committee has apparently been set up to study if and how bitcoins can be regulated.

If it is regularised and a well-defined framework issued for it to operate, and, as a result, more people enter the space, the hope is that it will stabilise prices and bring them to parity with those internationally. The tendency in India right now is to hoard bitcoins. It is less a medium of exchange and more a store of value. For bitcoins to go mainstream as a currency, it will have to be widely accepted. While only a few things can be purchased through bitcoins in India, the list is gradually increasing.

Not for trading and increasing your money. It can be used as a currency. To see that happen, Gahlot, along with two other bitcoin enthusiasts, has set up what he calls Bitserve Technologies. They aim to create a number of online business projects involving bitcoins. Their first project, Flybit, an online platform that sells flight tickets for bitcoins, offers low prices as a lure.

This is enabled by the break-even basis of its business model. Nobody will freeze your account or charge you for something. But a lot more people will begin to use it eventually. What we are trying to do is to get those potential users.