The evolution of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin brought before the world, among other things, one very important fact – that it is possible to own valuable assets without an essential physical presence. TechGold as they can be called, they do not have any physical form like a coin or a biscuit or lumps like gold and other precious metals. Despite this fact, they retain all the value characteristics of precious metals.
On the topic of precious metals, if there is one place on the planet that has garnered an age-old love for gold, it is India. From time immemorial into the present, we are known to hoard the yellow metal with remarkable zeal. Now imagine a scenario where the same fervour is diverted towards an asset equally valuable minus the hassles that go with buying and stocking physical assets like gold!
Unocoin was born to precisely address these Indian needs and traits. Founded by cryptocurrency evangelists in the year 2013, its mission is to provide Indians easy and assured access to Bitcoin and crypto assets. To that end, it operates India’s largest BTC-INR trading platform that enables buying, selling, storing, usage, and acceptance of Bitcoin.
Competition galore in the domain, Unocoin’s USP remains its strong focus on creating awareness in India by making available innovative and revolutionary products centred around the Bitcoin ecosystem. Its other important USP remains how it has been disseminating information on Bitcoin and blockchain technology using frequent host meetups, seminars, guest talks, and other collaborations. With a growing appreciation for cryptos including Bitcoins and blockchain, they have introduced Unoversity, a resource base for acquiring skills and knowledge in the domain.
The brain behind the concept
Leading from the front with his avowed mission of “helping simplify money-making for every Indian” is Sathvik Vishwanath. An MBA from Melbourne Business School, Sathvik was always passionate about innovative and disruptive technology and saw its origins way back in 2001 with the net becoming increasingly accessible to the general public. What started with creating websites and email IDs for clients visiting cyber cafes got a fillip with the creation in 2008 of his first venture.
VentureNext customized scripting for businesses in the virtual world. His next endeavour, CoinMonk Ventures came about in 2013 when he was introduced to Bitcoins and wanted the world to know everything about it. Unocoin.com was born at the Global Bitcoin Conference organized by the former in December 2013 and became the first company in India to provide access to Bitcoin and crypto assets to Indians. Things have moved appreciably since then.
Sathvik, besides working tirelessly to promote Bitcoins in the public domain, is today an avid TedX speaker, a guest lecturer at IIM Bangalore, and a speaker at scores of conferences. His name figured in the list of 30 most influential Business Leaders of 2017 and he has been awarded the Young Asian Entrepreneurs 2019-20 Award by the AsiaOne Magazine.
Start-up, Venture Capital, Emerging Technologies, and the likes are not simply words for Sathvik. Living and breathing in them in varied forms for close to two decades, he understands these in their full scope and amplitude. Being a ground-up entrepreneur all his life, he has a great appreciation for the start-up ecosystem in India which he says has shown a tremendous appetite for tech innovation and understanding of consumers’ needs than ever before. India with the youngest population in the world which has also been one of the fastest to accept digitization and the third-largest start-up ecosystem in the world is, according to him, an exciting place for original thinkers.
Put together, the industry can easily show a consistent annual YoY growth of 12-15%. Of the 50,000 start-ups in India in 2018, he quotes, around 8,900 – 9,300 are tech start-ups, of which close to 1300 came into being in just one year (2019). This, he says, is indicative of our prolific output as a country when it comes to tech solutions. The pandemic, he says has shown that our entrepreneurs are resilient, supportive of each other, community-focused, and willing to adapt with limited resources at their disposal. “I am very hopeful about the start-up ecosystem in our country”, he concludes.
Technology and investments
Start-ups and Emerging Technologies in Sathvik’s view are two sides of the same coin with the coin itself representing a single thought – Disruption. Be it the Internet or the ubiquitous mobile phone, all these have disrupted an existing order that has outgrown its worth but have nevertheless been around for close to a century, he says. With the best in technology being available at the user’s fingertips, consumers are today spoilt for choices in an increasingly crowded tech space.
All this makes the tech world a land of opportunities for budding entrepreneurs who think and build products that customers want while doing so at speeds or who build products that customers are yet to imagine but who, if given a chance, would cling to it, he elaborates.
According to Sathvik, not all organizations make awesome disruptors. Those that do, do so for some solid worthwhile reasons. Of these, he singles out leadership, team composition, top-tier employees’ vision, products, traction, and the integrity of its stakeholders as being most pertinent. He says that the tech company must focus on creating a suitable culture and a fertile ground for its employees to be productive and enjoy their work while being in constant sync with the company’s vision.
The other most important quality he says is empathy i.e., the ability to understand customers and their pain points and ask the right questions to provide solutions for a better product tomorrow.
Covid-19 and cryptocurrency
The year 2020 was the near-perfect year of disruptions with even known disruptors not being spared. The biggest disrupter this year has been a virus that prefers attacking and decimating humans instead of machines. Did the Covid-19 pandemic affect Unocoin’s working?
Sathvik says that on the surface with cryptocurrencies and blockchains not being affected materially, Unocoin too remained relatively unscathed – and what has emerged as a welcome surprise is a surge in the number of crypto users!
He quotes Ajeet Khurana, former head of the Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Committee of the IAMAI (Internet And Mobile Association of India) who says “Daily crypto trading volume in India may be $10-$30 million,” with volumes having reportedly increased by 400% on certain platforms in the last few months, adds the latter.
One probable reason for the lack of any adverse effect on cryptocurrencies and blockchains is that the pandemic forced everyone to stay indoors, pushing us towards an increasingly digital lifestyle and accelerating our advances towards upskilling and educating on the latest and best in technology and avenues to invest.
Loss of income and pay cuts meant people are now more open to new income and investment alternatives. Cryptos additionally offer the possibility of doing business at substantially reduced costs owing to its relatively low fees.
The Future
Sathvik, the ever-optimist, sees exciting times for both the industry and Unocoin. He says that the industry is the fastest moving and growing industry in the world which presents an exciting challenge for them to catch the wave and grow with it. What adds to the excitement today is a marked shift in the government’s stance on the regulatory framework around cryptocurrencies. In part, it arises from the Supreme Court’s order in March 2020 overturning the RBI’s blanket ban on banks restricting them from offering services to the cryptocurrency industry in India.
With that, the tables have now turned and the zeal around investing in virtual currencies can longer be quashed or stemmed. As a response to this development, the talent pool in the country is gearing up to support it. The technical aspiration of the younger generation too is showing itself to be unparalleled when it comes to the crypto industry terminology and technology. Times ahead are truly exciting for this space, he says.
As for Unocoin, there is no need to pivot its offerings or operations in any major way. ready as they are to accommodate an increasing number of investors on their platform. To this end, they have taken extra efforts to educate people about the regulations so that the latter gets a clear picture of the risks and benefits associated with investing.
Add to this, and to diversify their offerings, they have added exciting tokens like PAXG which could help hedge inflation and mitigate the risks of investment. PAXG offers a gold-backed cryptocurrency token which is backed by one fine troy ounce (t oz) of a 400 oz London Good Delivery gold bar, stored in Brink’s gold vaults. This also aligned with people’s tendency to buy gold during trying times like the Covid-19 pandemic when other mediums of investment like stocks, commodities, mutual funds, and real estate often suffer.
