India Blockchain Alliance (IBA) was arrange in 2018 by Raj Kapoor — an advisory board member at over 50 blockchain corporations — based mostly on the thought the know-how may assist reshape monetary, social and governance methods in the world’s most populous nation and make them extra decentralized, open and equitable.
Whereas India’s authorities has warned about risks in cryptocurrency buying and selling, it has shown support for blockchain know-how as have a number of states in India. Pune state is adopting blockchain to file actual property transactions to cut back fraud. Police in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh have set up a blockchain-based on-line portal to make sure filed complaints can’t be tampered with or deleted.
The IBA, which mentioned it really works with startups and a whole bunch of schools throughout India, can also be a partner with the Nordic Blockchain Affiliation and the FinTech Affiliation of Sri Lanka.
In an interview with Forkast’s Pradipta Mukherjee, Kapoor, who can also be IBA’s chief govt officer, mentioned the state of blockchain-based initiatives in India.
The next Q&A has been edited for readability and size.
Pradipta Mukherjee: The IBA has been round for 5 years now. Inform us about your journey and the impact that IBA is trying to make in India?
Raj Kapoor: After we arrange in 2018, at any time when we spoke about blockchain, all people solely requested about Bitcoin. They equated blockchain with Bitcoin and vice versa. One among the key the reason why I established this group was to make folks perceive the impact of the know-how and never essentially crypto or Bitcoin. I additionally imagine that India has the energy to harness this know-how as a result of now we have the proper assets, however we don’t have the route.
My two co-founders and myself first began with the schooling system. We began creating applications for universities, schools, and establishments. At the moment we work with greater than 250 universities and schools throughout the country. We have now arrange facilities of excellence. We train blockchain at totally different ranges relying on what sort of universities or establishments they’re.
We mentor a whole lot of startups. We do a whole lot of work with the authorities in phrases of giving them recommendation on what might be blockchain interventions for coverage, requirements, [and] frameworks.
Mukherjee: What’s the future of blockchain in India?
Kapoor: Any blockchain has a type of tokenization or a reward system. Total asset courses are going to be tokenized. At the moment now we have tokenized actual property, bonds, and we are able to tokenize any asset together with inexperienced carbon credit. The subsequent 5 to 10 years will see a significant shift from the method issues are at the moment to getting tokenized and due to this fact accessible to most. These tokens don’t have anything to do with crypto.
I’m concerned in greater than 50-odd native initiatives and one other 70 or 80 outdoors the country. These are all blockchain initiatives that don’t have anything to do with crypto. What we do promote is the adoption of blockchain, distributed ledger know-how and the whole lot that flows with it, resembling the metaverse, NFTs (non-fungible tokens), DeFi (decentralized finance) and Web3.
Mukherjee: Are you able to speak about the blockchain initiatives you might be engaged on in India?
Kapoor: For a few universities in India, we’re placing certificates on the blockchain in order that it’s simple for anyone throughout the world to confirm the diploma of a person. IBA doesn’t have a tech workforce to create it. We design the structure, the solutioning and the method ahead, after which work along with implementation companions to finish the initiative.
We’re engaged on a non-public healthcare challenge the place we’re placing all well being information on the blockchain, which could be accessed by all hospitals throughout India. We have now received hospitals, physiotherapists, chemist retailers, all into the ecosystem.
We’re additionally creating a whole human useful resource system on blockchain that enables for checks of the authenticity of resumes filed by potential staff.
One other pilot challenge we’re doing in India is for girls who face sexual harassment — whether or not it’s in public, work, even at dwelling and inside households. Quite a lot of ladies victims don’t know the place to go, so we created a blockchain-based app the place ladies report anonymously. The challenge is in the beta part, but we have already got greater than 140,000 ladies on the platform, which is shocking.
With the Goa Government, I’m doing a whole lot of initiatives on the blockchain, primarily, placing all land information on the blockchain. After Goa gained independence, certainly one of the predominant issues was the lack of land information and there have been many instances of duplication.
Mukherjee: What are the shortcomings that you simply face when engaged on these initiatives in India?
Kapoor: First is blockchain interoperability. The interconnectivity just isn’t low-cost and it’s not assured.
The second is the variety of transactions per second. For example, when you all of a sudden have 100,000 folks logging in inside minutes of one another, the course of turns into slower.
The third is lack of understanding. As soon as the public is conscious of the advantages of blockchain, the adoption can be higher. Proper now, adoption is lackadaisical to say the least.
The fourth, is safety issues. Now, at any time when there’s interoperability, it’s via a bridge. This bridge has vulnerabilities that aren’t acknowledged by most Indian corporations. Due to this fact, safety, interoperability, transaction velocity, and consciousness are the predominant issues.
Mukherjee: There have been talks about remote voting throughout polls utilizing blockchain. Has that taken off in India?
Kapoor: There’s a pilot program happening in Telangana [in south India]. It’s nice for people who find themselves not in the state and want to vote, or for the aged who don’t wish to stand in line at polling cubicles. What now we have not recognized fully are the safety plugs in order that now we have a sacrosanct secure system.
Mukherjee: The place do you see India’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) adoption headed?
Kapoor: We speak about CBDC [but] are we CBDC prepared? Are the banks CBDC prepared? The attention of CBDC in the banking sector is abysmally low.
We have to have our monetary system prepared for it. The backward integration must be finished and the consciousness inside the banking system must be constructed first.
I imagine that CBDC is nice for enterprise to enterprise, however it’s the adoption that may take time. If there are a lot of different choices, folks could not go for a CBDC. So, folks’s fears must be allayed first and defined that it is a higher system. But it surely’s very tough to alter folks’s mindsets, particularly in India the place companies are very conventional. It needs to be in a staggered means of consciousness, advantages, benefits, transparency and belief. It’s a long-term course of.
